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In 1907, with his interest in the advancement of contemporary art in Paris and frustration with conservative Scotland, an inheritance following his father’s death in 1906 allowed Fergusson to move to Paris permanently.

Fleurs wonderfully epitomises the dramatic effect the European influences had on Fergusson’s work: a lighter palette, flattening of form and a heavy use of outlining in his dark red and blue aesthetic, a stark contrast to his earlier works.

Christie’s

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Best viewed At Sunnyside

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Details

• John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961)
• Fleurs
• oil on board laid on panel
• 20 x 17¾ in…

These days, it’s not very fashionable to read Philip Roth (1933-2018), but Deception (1990) is remarkably prescient.

“Can you explain to the court why you hate women?”

“But I don’t hate them.”

“If you do not hate women, why have you defamed them and denigrated them in your books?  Why have you abused them in your work and in your life?”

“I have not abused them in either.”

“We had heard testimony from expert witnesses, expert witnesses who have pointed to chapter and verse to support their every judgement.  And yet you are trying, are you, to tell this court that these authorities with unimpeachable professional standards, testifying under oath in a court of law, are either mistaken or lying?  May I ask you, sir—what have you ever done that has been of service to women?”

“And why do you, may I ask, take the depiction of one woman as…

     The main overall impression I gained from this book, published almost a century ago, is how much psychoanalysis has moved on in that time, in terms of its methods, procedures and outcomes, and also how far ahead of his time Jung was, even though he wrote using language which is rather impenetrable nowadays.

He warns against ‘suggestions’ from the ‘analyst’, advising that progress comes from what the client brings to a session; here we see the current way, where the ‘client/worker’ does the work through speaking and making connections, and cannot not remain passive during a therapy session, cannot, having talked for their hour, then have the ‘solution’ to their ‘problems’ presented by the expert analyst.

We see Jung’s clear awareness that people like Freud, Adler and himself were at the very earliest stagesin the development of what we now call psychotherapy. Freud…

The Spartacus League was founded by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in August 1914, part of the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), which after the Russian Revolution of 1917 agitated for a libertarian socialist government based on local workers’ councils. When the German Revolution of November 1918 occurred, a period of instability began, which lasted until 1923. Both Liebknecht and the leader of the SPD, Ebert declared new Republics on November 9, the day after the emperor’s abdication, Ebert demanded the chancellorship for himself. Ebert then offered to take Liebknecht on as a Minister, though Liebknecht wanted full control of the army by the workers’ councils. Around 8pm that night, a group of 100 Revolutionary Stewards from the larger Berlin factories occupied the Reichstag and formed a revolutionary parliament. They originally planned for a coup over the SPD leadership two days later, but noticing a swift rise in revolutionary activity…

Henriette Wyeth Hurd (October 22, 1907-April 3, 1997), the eldest daughter of illustrator N.C. Wyeth, was an American artist noted for her portraits and still life paintings.
Biography on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henriette_Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth by Henriette Wyeth
1956 / Oil on canvas / 17-5/16 x 15-3/16″ / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, DC

Henriette Wyeth on Artnet: http://www.artnet.com/artists/henriette-wyeth/

Further reading:
https://www.anart4life.com/a-forgotten-wyeth-henriette/
https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/magical-real-henriette-wyeth-and-peter-hurd/
https://www.brandywine.org/museum/about/wyeth-family-artists

Watercolour of Grantchester Meadows

There, spring lambs jam the sheepfold. In air
Stilled, silvered as water in a glass
Nothing is big or far.
The small shrew chitters from its wilderness
Of grassheads and is heard.
Each thumb-sized bird
Fits nimble-winged in thickets, and of good colour.

Cloudrack and owl-hollowed willows slanting over
The bland Granta double their white and green
World under the sheer water
And ride that flux at anchor, upside down.
The punter sinks his pole.
In Byron’s pool
Cattails part where the tame cygnets steer.

It is a country on a nursery plate.
Spotted cows revolve their jaws and crop
Red clover or gnaw beetroot
Bellied on a nimbus of sun-glazed buttercup.
Hedging meadows of benign
Arcadian green
The blood-berried hawthorn hides its spines with white.

Droll, vegetarian, the water rat
Saws down a reed and swims from his limber grove,
While the students stroll or…