The J.D. Fergusson Memorial Collection was presented to the University by Margaret Morris Fergusson, the widow of the artist, 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 somewhere 'safe' to house the collection and Universities were a popular choice for seeking a secure home for art at that time. Universities encouraged innovation and attracted new money whereas the museum and gallery world at that time was anything but well funded and secure. 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 with its energetic young Principal, Tom Cottrell, and a location not so distant from the County , seemed a natural choice.

The collection of fourteen of his 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. Our collection includes some of his finest work and includes the seminal painting Rhythm, 1911.

The University has published an illustrated catalogue of the collection with an introductory essay by Guy Peploe, the grandson of Fergusson's friend and contemporary, S.J. Peploe.

This catalogue, posters of Portsmouth Docks and Voiles Indiennes and postcards of the entire collection are available either at the Gallery or on request by mail or email to the curator.

To view the J. D. Fergusson Memorial Collection

All reproductions of Fergusson's works on this website are by kind permission of the copyright holders The Fergusson Gallery, Perth and Kinross Council.