Stream with Trees (oil on panel)

During the late 1890's Fergusson began to travel abroad and exposure to art on the Continent encouraged him to develop an experimental approach. The work of the French Impressionists was particularly important, and landscape offered the ideal vehicle to explore the latest ideas about colour and light. In responding to such influences Fergusson was following a precedent set for him by a previous generation of Scottish painters now known as the 'Glasgow Boys'. Their work, noted amongst other things, for its introduction of bright colour, finds continuity in Fergusson's ealy experiments such as this. On his death in 1961 Fergusson left the largest collection of his works in existence to his partner, Margaret Morris (1891-1980). In 1963 she established the JD Fergusson Art Foundation, who subsequently gifted the entire collection, archive and copyright to Perth and Kinross District Council in November 1991.