Living the Dream

Abstract

7 December 2013 – 15 June 2014 Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art (Modern Two) 73 Belford Road, Edinburgh EH4 3DS In Midnight in Paris , Woody Allen transports his leading character back to the Paris of La Belle Epoque, the glorious period at the start of the 20th century when the French capital was the centre of artistic freedom. Just over a century ago, a young Scottish medical student similarly transported himself to live in that fantastic, creative melting pot. John Duncan Fergusson spent 2 years at Edinburgh University before giving up his medical studies to become a painter, initially visiting France in summers when he stayed as long as he could afford, but in 1905 he moved permanently, abandoning family and convention, to live the rest of his life, a self-taught painter, ‘trying for truth, for reality, through light’. He was often very poor, but he never borrowed money; he lived on porridge for lunch, and onion and potato soup for dinner, with an occasional night out when he met his friends at a cheap restaurant in Montparnasse. He was gloriously happy; the Paris tradespeople were interested in artists, his laundress mended his clothes without being asked, and only added a few sous to the bill. He always said that …