Four rarely seen Highland landscapes by the leading Scottish Colourist JD Fergusson are to be re-united for the first time in nearly 100 years for a major retrospective of his life and work.
Fergusson, from Leith, spent many years working in Paris but returned to Scotland for a motoring tour in 1922, a trip that inspired a series of landscape paintings. These works were out of the ordinary as he is usually renowned for his depictions of the female form. Fergusson is now the subject of a landmark show about his life and works at the National Galleries of Scotland from December 7.
Fifteen of these paintings were shown in his first Scottish solo exhibition, in Edinburgh and then Glasgow in 1923, but paintings from that show have not been shown together, and some of them not in public at all, since.
Curators at the galleries believe these landscapes, which include views of Milngavie and Ben Ledi, as well as two unidentifiable Highland views influenced his fellow Scottish Colourist, FCB Cadell and his depictions of Iona.
Visitors to the exhibition will be asked to try to help identify the views Fergusson painted.
The four landscapes have been loaned to the exhibition from different private collectors.
Alice Strang, senior curator, said: "We are delighted that we have been able to track down four beautiful examples, all in private hands, of this important series.
"Thanks to the generosity of their owners, the public will be able to see them together for the first time in exactly 90 years. Fifteen years after moving to Paris, Fergusson was obviously bowled over by the beauty of his home country.
"We would be delighted to hear from anyone who can identify the scenes they depict."
The tour had a big impact on Fergusson, and at the time his wife, Margaret Morris, a choreographer, said after it the painter was obsessed with what he had seen for about six months.
She said: "Fergus was literally painting every minute he was not sleeping or eating.
"He never got up very early, but started work around 10 o'clock. He would stop for a plate of porridge with a pint of milk and then paint till the light went... he got through an amazing amount of work because he just refused to go anywhere or see anybody, even real friends."
The four paintings in the show are A Puff Of Smoke near Milngavie, Storm Around Ben Ledi, The Rocky Glen and The Farm Among The Hills.
The show will also include the portrait of a French woman which was discovered after an appeal for works in The Herald.
The owner of the painting, Portrait de Mademoiselle H, contacted the gallery after the appeal appeared in The Herald in December last year.
JD Fergusson's 1907 work was painted during his influential and successful Paris period, although the identity of his subject is not known.
Ms Strang has spoken to more than 30 former friends, peers and colleagues of Fergusson for the show, which is the first retrospective of his work for many years.
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