A Still-life with Birds, a Wicker Basket and a Silk Drape on a Stone Ledge
Oil on canvas; 23 3 x 19 1 inches / 61 x 49 cm.
Signed "W.G.Ferguson" on the basket
Ferguson is a peripatetic and slightly elusive figure in the history of Scottish art. He is however one of the most accomplished British still-life painters of the 17th century. His work shows the clear influence of the Dutch painters, in particular Jan Vonck and Willem van Aelst (with whom his unsigned works are often confused). Indeed, Ferguson worked in Utrecht, The Hague and Amsterdam, although he also visited Italy and travelled to London where his patrons included the Duke of Lauderdale who commissioned pictures for Ham House.