(b Scotland, c. 1633; d Scotland, after 1695). Scottish painter, active also in the northern Netherlands. He was probably trained in Scotland but went to the Continent as a young man and worked in Utrecht, The Hague and Amsterdam; he also visited Italy. He painted accomplished still-lifes in the style of such Dutch painters as Jan Vonck (1630–after 1660) or Willem van Aelst. A distinguished early example, the Still-life with Birds (1662; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), has a distinctive pale background, while a later Still-life with Dead Game (1684; Edinburgh, N.G.) exploits a shadowed background. Ferguson also painted landscapes with ruins and figures, generally under a dark sky and often sinister in mood, for instance a Ruined Altar and Figures (Edinburgh, N.G.). He was probably in London in the 1670s, when John Maitland, 2nd Earl and 1st Duke of Lauderdale, and his wife commissioned him and other artists to produce pictures for the decoration of Ham House, Surrey. Two of these, Classical Ruins and a Sorceress among Classical Ruins, were inset as overdoors in the Duchess’s private closet. Ferguson’s choice of subject-matter was probably partly influenced by Dutch painters, for instance Thomas Wijck, who was also in the service of the Lauderdales, or earlier artists such as Jacob de Wet.

• Ferguson, William Gouw
  • Maitland, John
  • Scotland, §III, 1: Painting and graphic arts, before 1700