John Duncan Fergusson

(British, 1874-1961)

The Rainbow 56 x 61 cm. (22 x 24 in.)

Footnotes

Provenance
With The Fine Art Society, London & Edinburgh, where acquired by the present owner in 1974

Exhibited
London, The Fine Art Society, J.D. Fergusson 1874-1961, 10 September - 4 October 1974, cat.no. 68; this exhibition travelled to Glasgow, Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, 12 October - 3 November 1974 & Edinburgh, The Fine Art Society, 9 November - 30 November 1974

Fergusson's celebrated and extensive 'Highland Tour' in the summer of 1922 was made in the company of his closest friend, John Ressich. Fifteen paintings were completed from sketches made, and exhibited the following year in his first solo exhibitions to be staged in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Embarking from Glasgow via Milngavie (which inspired A Puff of Smoke near Milngavie), they headed up the east coast to Aberdeen and then inland to Pitlochry, Loch Ness and over to the west coast, where they sailed around Skye. After heading to the Black Isle, they turned for home via Perthshire. Favourite spots included Loch Laggan, Arisaig and Loch Shiel, and some of his most topographical paintings to date were inspired by locations such as Glen Isla, Killiecrankie and Craig Coinach.

A letter to Fergus and Meg (M. Morris, The Art of J.D. Fergusson, Glasgow and London, 1974, pp.154-155), dated 1925, from Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret extols the virtues of these pictures, which they had been shown in the Chelsea studio before his successful exhibition at the Leicester Galleries.

Extant paintings from the tour are remarkably positive and uplifting, but the present work may also come as close to symbolism as Fergusson ventured. Of an (as yet unknown) location, it has a 'visionary' quality unmatched in modern Scottish painting until Munch's groundbreaking exhibition at the SSA in 1931, which had such an impact on Gillies, Maxwell and MacTaggart.