…this painting it is more than just a portrait of Mrs Julian Lousada, the painting takes on a still life quality throughout, a new formalisation of beauty and with it a modernist approach to painting. This work is suggestive of the eternal rhythm of organic growth and like his contemporary female nudes this work reflects an appreciation and understanding of the essence of beauty and has an almost sensual expression of natural forms and glowing colour. These are the same rhythms that Matisse had exploited in the pictures that had greatly inspired Fergusson in the early Paris years. During those years colour and light had fascinated him and it is not surprising that it was the Fauves, of all the avant-garde groups in Paris, which most attracted him. This portrait displays a deep understanding of form, rhythmic line and a fascination with the shapes of objects, and throughout the composition he has used colour and pattern to suggest the personality and beauty of the sitter.

Christie’s

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Details

• John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961)
• Complexity: Mrs Julian Lousada
• signed and dated ‘J.D. FERGUSSON 1915’ (on the reverse), signed again twice ‘J.D. FERGUSSON’ (on the stretcher and on the frame), inscribed and dated again ‘COMPLEXITY 1915’ (on an artist’s label attached to the stretcher)
• oil on canvas
• 24 x 22 in. (61 x 55.9 cm.)
• Source: Christie’s
• Link: https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/john-duncan-fergusson-complexity-mrs-julian-lousada-5560415-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=5560415&sid=74b1f824-6694-499f-9a66-59bfe4fe3f59

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