The joy of sex: Scottish Colourist masters depiction of love-making to be shown for first time in 100 years

The painting, Etude de Rhythm, has previously only been shown once before in public in Paris.

It is thought the painting – which was in poor condition and not considered "commercial" or inclined to sell – has been in storage for many years in France.

The artwork, owned by the Fergusson Gallery of Perth, has recently been conserved and is being shown for the first time in its newly renovated state.

Apparently depicting a couple making love, the artwork is to be featured in a major new show about groundbreaking Scottish painters and sculptors.

The painting was created by the Leith-born Colourist during an “astonishing” burst of creativity, notably fixated on the female body, in 1910.

Alice Strang, the curator of the A New Era show, which opens December 2, said that Fergusson’s depiction of sexuality and, in this case, the sexual act, is exceptional in Scottish and British painting.

She said: “A man who absolutely and undoubtedly enjoyed heterosexual sex, and is in the middle of creating this extraordinary series of paintings celebrating physicality, and particularly female sexuality – that is the context for this work.

“It is also an extremely early engagement with the ideas of the Cubist artists.

“There is nothing like it in the Colourists – this is exceptional in modern British art, not just Scottish art.”

The curator added: “Even beyond the image of a couple having sex, if that is what it is, it is still a highly unusual painting of a Scottish artist by 1910.

“Even if we don’t understand it entirely, it is still extraordinary, and maybe that was part of Fergusson’s intention.

“If it is sex, then why not celebrate it, and if it is that it is a totally joyful celebration of a wonderful thing two human beings can do together.”

Ms Strang noted that the work’s title could also possibly allude to the work’s subject matter, as well as the natural rhythm of the seasons, and the rhythm of the ballet which he encountered in Paris.

She added: “In Paris, perhaps the audience who saw would have a more open-minded appreciation of it.

“Could you imagine if that was hung on the walls of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1911?

“In my innocent way, when I first saw it I thought it was still life of a flower, a lily or an iris or something.”

Ms Strang cautioned that one colleague noted that the painting could be a naked figure from separate angles at once, the position of naked buttocks between someone’s legs more than suggests the subject of Fergusson’s inspiration.

In the catalogue for the show, she says the painting, which shows human body parts dissolving into a riot of colour, can be clearly interpreted as a couple having intercourse.

She said: “This work to me looks like a man’s back and buttocks with legs coming round him, but is that impure thoughts?

“And once someone has suggested it to you, it is hard to see past it.

“I think that Fergusson had a very frank and open appreciation of the female body.”

John Duncan Fergusson lived from 1874 to 1961, and was one of the principle Scottish Colourists.

He and his partner, the dancer Margaret Morris, moved to Glasgow in 1939, where they lived for the rest of their lives.

Ms Strang added: “Starting in 1910 he created an absolutely astonishing series of paintings of the female form.

“He employed a professional model and he paints them as anonymous nudes, and they are about celebrating female sexuality and sensuality.

“These are life size, incredible images of fertility and abundancy, and this is where the Etude de Rhythm, which is a study for Rhythm, which is owned by the University of Stirling, an image of an incredibly voluptuous woman holding an apple.

The painting will be in the show A New Era, Scottish Modern Art from 1900-1950 from December 2, at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.

ANALYSIS - PHIL MILLER

IT is notable how often depictions of the human body – which, after all, we all possess – can still be considered shocking.

But through the years visual art, either contesting or revolting against contemporary morals and mores, has managed to upset and provoke.

JD Fergusson was not the first artist to depict the naked form. However, his Etude de Rhythm is notably candid. But even with this painting, there is ambiguity. One colleague of the National Galleries of Scotland curator Alice Strang, who is arranging its display, said it could be a cubist vision of naked body seen from several angles at once. The position of the legs around the buttocks seem to be clear evidence against that, however. And as Ms Strang notes, once you see it as a picture of sex, it is hard to un-see it.

Nudity can still upset people. In 2002, the ‘New Glasgow Boy’ Peter Howson unveiled a nude of the singer Madonna that caused some comment, as she had posed fully-clothed for the painter.

Howson later said of the public’s interest: “The interesting thing is why people are so interested in Madonna in the nude when I haven’t even seen her. It’s only my imagination, my seedy mind.”

Five years ago, there was a stushie over the display of Picasso’s Nude Woman in a Red Armchair at Edinburgh Airport. The airport temporarily decided to cover up the Nude Woman’s bare breasts – a decision quickly reversed.

At the time Sir John Leighton, director general of the National Galleries of Scotland, noted, accurately: “It is obviously bizarre that all kinds of images of women in various states of dress and undress can be used in contemporary advertising without comment, but somehow a painted nude by one of the world’s most famous artists is found to be disturbing.”

In an age where news websites have special online columns dedicated to images of people in bikinis or states of undress, how can a work of art shock?

Fergusson’s depiction of sex (if it is) is not pornographic, and although the body forms are clear, its image dissolves into a riot of colour and movement.