Lost Colourist gem tracked down to Welsh snooker room

Llangoed Hall, a country house hotel near Brecon in Wales, has agreed for the work, painted in 1903, to be part of the Fergusson show, which will run from December until June next year and feature about 80 paintings, sculptures and drawings by the Scottish Colourist.

The painting was originally purchased by Sir Bernard Ashley, the late owner of Llangoed Hall and co-founder of the international Laura Ashley fashion brand, at auction in the late 1980s, advised by Ewan Mundy and Celia Philo of Ewan Mundy Fine Art in Glasgow.

Discussions with Mr Mundy led Alice Strang, senior curator at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, to Llangoed Hall in her quest to locate The Silk Hat, which depicts an elegant gentleman.

Ms Strang said the identity of the sitter for the portrait, which would have been painted in Fergusson's 16 Picardy Place studio in Edinburgh, is likely to remain a mystery.

Fergusson, like his fellow Colourists, is still a draw at auctions: at Christie's his portrait of Grace McColl sold for £565,250 in 2010.

Curators at the national galleries have been searching for rare or unknown works by Fergusson, who was born in Leith, Edinburgh in 1874 but moved to Glasgow in 1940 with his partner, the equally distinguished dancer and choreographer Margaret Morris. The couple played a crucial role in galvanizing the city's art scene, being founder members of the New Art Club, a meeting and exhibiting society, as well as the New Scottish Group.

The Silk Hat is a rare example of Fergusson's early portraiture before a period living in London and Paris, Ms Strang said.

Ms Strang added: "You can really see a love of paint and painting here, how accomplished a painter he was.

"We are very excited to have it – one of the best bits of this job is to play a little bit of a detective and it has led to this."

Last year the national galleries urged members of the public to come forward with works by the painter as well as memories, stories and anecdotes as they prepared for the major retrospective.

Fergusson, who died in 1961, was one of the Scottish Colourists, the group of artists that also includes FCB Cadell, Samuel Peploe and GL Hunter.

Calum Milne, the Scottish managing director of the hotel, said: "This is an extremely rare and valuable painting, which is unusual because Fergusson was renowned for painting women rather than men.

"We are delighted that this painting is going back to Scotland on loan and I would encourage everybody visiting Edinburgh to go and see it. There's still time, however, for people to see it, together with the rest of our art collection, at Llangoed Hall before it leaves later this year."

Llangoed Hall, originally known as Llangoed Castle, has existed as a mansion since 1632.

In the late 1980s, despite its illustrious history, the hall was in a parlous state and could easily have been demolished had it not been for Sir Bernard Ashley, who rescued it following the death of his wife Laura.

Fergusson lived from 1874 to 1961 and was mostly self-taught. He moved to Paris in 1907 with fellow Colourist Peploe and, more than any of his Scottish contemporaries, assimilated and refined the latest developments in French painting.

He quickly became intimately involved with the Parisian avant-garde scene, growing familiar with the expressive techniques of Fauve artists such as Matisse. He met Morris in 1913, and they became a life-long couple.

The outbreak of the First World War forced them to return to Britain. By 1918 he was a member of the art scene in Chelsea, London, while she established the Margaret Morris Club, an important gathering place for local artists, writers and composers.

In 1929, the couple returned to Paris for 11 years before moving to Glasgow, where they settled.

TRACKED DOWN: The Silk Hat by JD Fergusson is to go on show in Edinburgh.