Pompidou lends three important paintings for Glasgow Hunterian's Scottish Colourists show

Visitors to the Hunterian Art Gallery’s forthcoming exhibition highlighting the work of the Scottish Colourists will have the chance to see three important works which are making a homecoming specially for the exhibition.

The paintings by JD Fergusson, SJ Peploe and GL Hunter have been loaned by the French government from the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

They will form the centrepiece of the exhibition Colour, Rhythm and Form: J. D. Fergusson and France, a new show marking the 50th anniversary of Fergusson’s death.

Although the term Scottish Colourist was not used until much later, Fergusson, Peploe and Hunter exhibited together in Paris as Les Peintres de l’Écosse Moderne (Modern Scottish Painters) in 1924 and Les Peintres Ecossais (The Scottish Painters) in 1931.

On the opening day of the 1931 exhibition, the French Government bought La Déssee de la Rivière by Fergusson, La Forêt by Peploe and Lac Lomond by Hunter for the French National Art Collection – a great accolade for the artists and for Scottish art.

But it was Fergusson who epitomised a new spirit in Scottish painting. The artist made several trips to France in his lifetime, and from the 1890s he kept a studio in Paris. Colour, Rhythm and Form highlights the enormous influence the city had on him during the fin de siècle and beyond and demonstrates how it inspired him and some of his contemporaries to produce their most substantial work.

The exhibition also highlights the impressive collection of the Hunterian Museum, which includes Fergusson’s Les Eus and Anne Estelle Rice, Closerie des Lilas as well as two significant recent acquisitions, the bronze head Eastre and the oil painting In the Woods, Cap d'Antibes.

These are joined by significant loans from other Scottish collections including Stirling University Art Collection’s Rhythm and a number of important works from the Fergusson Gallery in Perth, including Le Manteau Chinois and Self Portrait.

• Colour, Rhythm and Form: J. D. Fergusson and France runs at the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow from September 10 2011 to January 8 2012. Admission £5/£3.