The work, 'At the Milliner's Paris', depicts some of the dressmaking assistants Fergusson met at the louche Cafe d'Harcourt in the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank in Paris where they would gather after work and mingle with students from the nearby Sorbonne University.
It was a favourite haunt of Fergusson's when he was living and working in Paris before the First World War, based in a studio in the Rue Notre Dame des Champs.
 John Duncan Fergusson's 'At the Milliner's Paris' |
(The cafe continued as a student meeting place until the Nazi invasion in 1940 when it was turned into a German run bookshop. It is now a branch of Gap).
Edinburgh born Fergusson was the most travelled of the four Scottish Colourists (the other three being Peploe, Cadell and Hunter) and lived in France for long spells before 1914 and between the two world wars.
Largely self taught - he trained for a while as a naval surgeon before turning to painting - his work reflects a wide range of influences from Manet and Monet to Matisse and Whistler.
Considered the most stylistically adventurous of the Colourists, his work now commands high prices and 'At the Milliner's Paris' is estimated at £180,000-250,000 ($412,688). Fergusson returned to Scotland in 1939 and settled in Glasgow where he lived until his death in 1961.
 Peploe’s 'Flowers and Fruit' is among the sale's coveted paintings |
Other works appearing in the sale include S J Peploe's Poesy Roses estimated at £500,000.
"It is many years since there has been an auction of this depth and quality in Scotland," said the managing director of Bonhams Scotland, Miranda Grant, earlier this year.
In testament to the worldwide popularity and growing value of the Scottish Colourists, many of the works have been consigned from an overseas private collection.
Watch this space for more news on the sale.
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