DOI Heft:
No. 225 (December 1911)
DOI Artikel:Ruttner, Frank: The portrait paintings of John Duncan Fergusson
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21155#0226
John Duncan Fergusson
"LA DAME AUX ORANGES" BY J. D. FERGUSSON
be seen in the half-length Portrait of Miss sinne
Estelle Rice, which still recalls the Rosa Corder of
Whistler in its expression of character by pose,
though the handling is much looser and more
direct. The portrait of a singer, entitled In the
Sunlight, marks another stage when the artitt,
retaining his love of sweeping contours and large
planes rather than more intimate modelling, was
assiduously searching for colour in shadow. This,
as the title denotes, is an open-air portrait, and
the green shadows on the face, shadows filled with
vague reflected lights, suggest the surrounding
trees with truth as well as eloquence. Intricate
and complicated as this portrait undoubtedly is in
its patchwork, not so much of light and shade as
of warm and cool colour, the technical mastery of
the painter stands revealed in the orderly control
whereby all its constituents are blended into one
harmonious whole. For all its audacity of colour
not a single note stands out so prominently as to
disturb the unity of the whole in tone or mass.
Of the exceeding beauty and purity of colour in
this portrait it should be unnecessary to speak, for
its qualities may fairly be deduced from the
reproduction here given. But it may be of
interest to state that his concern to, keep his
palette pure and bright has led Mr. Fergusson to
paint for some years past in a white studio. Here
not only does every note of colour in his sitter
have its full value, but the artist has the assurance
of knowing that if his painting, when finished,
looks clean and true against his own white walls
204
he need not be afraid of sending it into any
exhibition.
If too much stress has been laid on certain
technical merits of In the Sunlight, it is only
because efficient craftsmanship is the first essential
of good painting, not because it is the end of art.
It would be easy to take another point of view
and to point out, for example, how admirably the
flash of light in the eyes conveys the vitality of
the original. Mr. Fergusson has never forgotten
that art must be significant as well as decorative.
Indeed, notwithstanding the obvious decorative
charm of his portraits, it would be no exaggeration
to say that this is the result not so much of a
conscious aim as of an ineradicable instinct.
Nothing is further from Mr. Fergusson's mind
than to trace pretty arabesques and put together
pleasing mosaics. Terms of decoration are of
value to him only in so far as they help him to
record with emotional emphasis his personal
experience. The flowered backgrounds so fre-
quently employed in his later portraits are no
mere idle decorative accessories. They are
deliberately chosen for the opportunities they
PORTRAIT OF MISS ANNE ESTELLE RICE
BY D. FERGUSSON
"LA DAME AUX ORANGES" BY J. D. FERGUSSON
be seen in the half-length Portrait of Miss sinne
Estelle Rice, which still recalls the Rosa Corder of
Whistler in its expression of character by pose,
though the handling is much looser and more
direct. The portrait of a singer, entitled In the
Sunlight, marks another stage when the artitt,
retaining his love of sweeping contours and large
planes rather than more intimate modelling, was
assiduously searching for colour in shadow. This,
as the title denotes, is an open-air portrait, and
the green shadows on the face, shadows filled with
vague reflected lights, suggest the surrounding
trees with truth as well as eloquence. Intricate
and complicated as this portrait undoubtedly is in
its patchwork, not so much of light and shade as
of warm and cool colour, the technical mastery of
the painter stands revealed in the orderly control
whereby all its constituents are blended into one
harmonious whole. For all its audacity of colour
not a single note stands out so prominently as to
disturb the unity of the whole in tone or mass.
Of the exceeding beauty and purity of colour in
this portrait it should be unnecessary to speak, for
its qualities may fairly be deduced from the
reproduction here given. But it may be of
interest to state that his concern to, keep his
palette pure and bright has led Mr. Fergusson to
paint for some years past in a white studio. Here
not only does every note of colour in his sitter
have its full value, but the artist has the assurance
of knowing that if his painting, when finished,
looks clean and true against his own white walls
204
he need not be afraid of sending it into any
exhibition.
If too much stress has been laid on certain
technical merits of In the Sunlight, it is only
because efficient craftsmanship is the first essential
of good painting, not because it is the end of art.
It would be easy to take another point of view
and to point out, for example, how admirably the
flash of light in the eyes conveys the vitality of
the original. Mr. Fergusson has never forgotten
that art must be significant as well as decorative.
Indeed, notwithstanding the obvious decorative
charm of his portraits, it would be no exaggeration
to say that this is the result not so much of a
conscious aim as of an ineradicable instinct.
Nothing is further from Mr. Fergusson's mind
than to trace pretty arabesques and put together
pleasing mosaics. Terms of decoration are of
value to him only in so far as they help him to
record with emotional emphasis his personal
experience. The flowered backgrounds so fre-
quently employed in his later portraits are no
mere idle decorative accessories. They are
deliberately chosen for the opportunities they
PORTRAIT OF MISS ANNE ESTELLE RICE
BY D. FERGUSSON