John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961)

Fergusson’s time in Paris brought about a growing self-confidence in the artist. His abilities were fully recognised by his election as a ‘solitaire’ of the Paris Salon d’Automne in 1909, an award that included the allocation of an entire wall for his works.

Fergusson said that in Paris he ‘lived life as it should be.' He loved to witness and record new and exotic sights. The Parisian women he saw and painted during his time in France provided fertile ground for this passion. Talking of the fashionable people he saw at a local café he said:

‘... for me the great attraction was the girl frequenters. They were chiefly girls employed by dressmakers and milliners and wore things they were working at, mostly too extreme from a practical point of view, but with that touch of daring that made them very helpful - they were a great help to me’ (M. Morris, The Art of J.D. Fergusson, Glasgow, 1974, p. 63).