All reproductions of Fergusson's works on this website are by kind permission of the copyright holders
The Fergusson Gallery, Perth and Kinross Council.
Fergusson at Stirling
John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961) was a principal artist in the group now known as the Scottish Colourists, which combined French Impressionist techniques with Scottish themes to produce outstanding works in the early 20th Century.
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In Glen Isla by J D Fergusson (Oil, 1922)
The J D Fergusson Memorial Collection was presented to the University by Margaret Morris, the artist's lifelong partner, and the J D Fergusson Art Foundation on Thursday 26th September 1968. This was the first and only bequest of a group of his work to be made by the Foundation before the setting up of the Fergusson Gallery in Perth.
In the late sixties the Foundation and Margaret Morris were looking for a good home for the collection and Universities, which encouraged innovation and attracted new money, were a popular choice for seeking a secure home for art at that time. Fergusson had also been very attached to Perthshire and had expressed a wish that a gallery could be sited there, so the new University at Stirling, at not too far a distance, and with its energetic young Principal, Tom Cottrell, seemed a natural choice.
The collection of fourteen of Fergusson's paintings was chosen to represent all periods of his life from his very early Bazaar in Tangiers (c. 1897) to A Bridge on the Kelvin (1942). It contains some of his finest work and includes the seminal painting Rhythm (1911).
The University has recently re-published a catalogue of these works with added accompanying essays. 'Colour, Light, Freedom: Fergusson at Stirling' can be purchased in the Pathfoot Building Crush Hall for £5, or ordered online here.
Read the introductory essay in this publication by Guy Peploe (the grandson of Fergusson's friend and contemporary, S.J. Peploe).