In the 1880s a group of Scottish colourists called the ‘Glasgow Boys’ discovered that due to artistic training in Paris, amny artists were being produced and they realised that there was lots of ew work opportunitties to be found in Paris. The colourists admired the ‘Glasgow Boys’. Thye spent sometime in Paris at the time of the great exhibitions devoted to Whistler, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gaugin and Toulouse Lautrec. This led tot ehm discovering the latest Fauve and Cubist works by Matisse and Picasso. They were also influenced by this work and went on to create modern paintings.
At some point all of these painters painted in France along with some of the most famous artists of the School of Paris. All of the artists spent some time in France. John Duncan Fergusson lived in France for most of his life. Fergusson was from a middle class home and had been left some money but they still had to sell their paintings to survive. He faced much financial hardship.
Fergusson was influenced by Manet and Velasquez before he came into contact with Picasso and Matisse.
Fergusson painted few still lifes in Paris before 1910. Many themes intrigued him the most important of these being pattern, pictorial rhythm andf the emotive power of colour.
In the painting La Bete Violette Fergusson created a circular motion in the composition, highlighted by the prancing beast on the shawl and echoed through the background arrangement of curtains, lamps and bowls. One of his most successful still life paintings, it looks forward to some of his most abstract arrangements. Below is an annotated thumbnail sketch of this painting.
This painting is very impressive and the strong and bold use of colour is creative and admirable. The composition of this paiting is also impressive and the flowing motion of the fabric helps to bring the painting together. The strong use of tone also helps to make the paiting more bold and interesting.
Another artist who is interested in still life is Anne Redpath. She is a contemporary artist. Anne Red[path was born on the 29th of March 1895 in the Scottish borders town of Galashiels. The family then moved to Hawick when her father, a pattern weaver, was offered a more reasonable post as head of design with the weavers Robert Noble & Co. of the Glebe Mills in Hawick. Redpath enroled at Edinburugh College of Art in October 1913 and was a very talented student. At the end of the post graduate year she was recommended for the highest honour the college could confer on a student; a travelling scholorship worth £120. She visited Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp where she was particularly impressed by the paintings of 15th century Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden. She also travelled to Paris and Florence and was heavily influenced by early Italian Art.
When she returned to Hawick she married James Beattie Michie, an architect whom she had known since childhood and for many years aftrerwards her proffessional career was sacrificed to raise her family of three sons. The family lived in France for a long time and when they
