The Chinese Coat

The sitter of this work is believed to be Anne Estelle Rice, as is recorded on the Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh label, on the reverse of the frame.

The Irish-American painter, Anne Estelle Rice (1877-1959) was born in Pennsylvania. Despite her parents' disapproval she completed an art college degree in 1897 and went on to work as an illustrator for several mainstream publications, including Harper's Bazaar. In 1905 Rice was posted to Paris by Rodman Wannamaker, the owner of a large department store, to illustrate the latest chic Parisian fashions for his magazine. She was joined by her friend Elizabeth Dryden who was employed to write the accompanying reviews.

Fergusson first met Anne Estelle Rice at Paris-Plage in 1907 and was immediately drawn to her vivacious personality. The two became lovers and were closely involved for the next six years. Rice was a very talented artist and Fergusson encouraged her to greater focus on her painting. Rice, in turn, became one of Fergusson’s most important muses and his greatest source of inspiration during this period. At times they even worked together, on both the Philadelphia magazine and later Fergusson’s journal, Rhythm, which he founded with John Middleton Murry. Fergusson made numerous sketches and paintings of Rice at this time, often showing her in a striking hat and employing a vibrant palette and bold brushwork, the latter of which can be seen to striking effect in the present work. Depicting her sitting within an interior setting, wearing a fashionable Chinese coat, with flowers adorning her hair, Fergusson captures the tenderness and intimacy of their relationship. His rhythmic use of line and expressionistic use of colour granting a wonderful sense of dynamism and movement.

Painted in 1908, while living in Paris, the present work represents Fergusson’s finest achievements in colour, light and form, which he developed during his formative years in the French capital. He settled there in 1907, shortly after meeting Rice, and soon made it his home, engrossing himself in the vibrant culture of the city, drawn to its progressive avant-garde and modernist way of life. Mixing with the creative milieu in Parisian cafés, he enjoyed the opportunity for unparalleled levels of creativity, exchange and debate amongst the writers, poets, dancers and artists he encountered.

Elizabeth Cumming explains, ‘France had become Fergusson’s second, perhaps his true, home. He was attracted by its culture, its artists and the sheer openness of its thinking, its debating of new ideas’ (E. Cumming, ‘La Vie de Bohème: Fergusson in France’ in exhibition catalogue, J.D. Fergusson, Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland, 2013, p. 53). Fergusson excitedly wrote, ‘Paris is simply a place of freedom. Geographically central, it has always been a centre of light, learning and research. It will be very difficult for anyone to show that it is not still the home of freedom for ideas; a place where people like to hear ideas presented and discussed; where an artist of any sort is just a human being like a doctor or a plumber; and not a freak or madman’ (J.D. Fergusson, quoted in K. Simister, Living Paint: J.D. Fergusson 1874-1961, Edinburgh and London, 2001, p. 31).

Fergusson immersed himself in the social and artistic life of Paris and came into contact with many of the great artists of the day, such as Auguste Chabaud, André Derain, Albert Marquet, Jean Metzinger and Pablo Picasso. The painters who had the greatest impact on him and his early artistic practice were Henri Matisse and the group of Fauve artists, whose work had caused a sensation when they first exhibited at the 1905 Salon d’Automne. Their dazzling and daring use of colour, their ‘unrefined’ painting style and their technique of flattening and outlining of forms, spoke to Fergusson's desire for freedom and autonomy in his work. By 1909, Fergusson was appointed a Sociétaire of the Salon d’Automne, exhibiting regularly alongside artists who continued to challenge ideas of artistic representation. Fergusson embraced bolder lines, vivid planes of colour and a heightened sense of ‘emotive expression’ in his painting, based on growing interest in works by Matisse and Cézanne (P. Long (ed.), The Scottish Colourists 1900-1930, Edinburgh, 2001, p. 44).

This influence can be seen in The Chinese Coat in his experimental and dynamic use of colour, selecting a myriad of reds, pinks and blues, which speak more of his interest in colour combinations rather than realistic rendering. It too can be seen in the heavy outlines which encase his muse and the sumptuous interior in which she sits. Kirsten Simister explains, ‘Consistent of Fergusson’s Fauvist style are his use of dark red and blue to outline his subject matter, the introduction of selected areas of bright colour, an emphasis on flat, strong pattern to enhance mood and an apparently casual placing of individual brushstrokes’ (K. Simister, op.cit., p. 38). A work by Anne Estelle Rice, Quimper, France, is included in this sale, lot 211.