John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961)

Standing Nude conveys female fertility and sexuality with the figure’s pointed breasts and exaggerated buttocks, but these elements of organicism are tightly controlled within a rigid overall schema of contours and planes. The work bears relation to pre-war Cubist sculpture such as Archipenko’s Women Combing Her Hair, 1915, and Gaudier-Brzeska’s Torpedo Fish and Brass Toy, both of 1914.

A plaster cast of Standing Nude appears in Déesse et Fruits, an oil by Fergusson sold in these Rooms, 25 November 2015, lot 21, for £158,500.