William Gouw Ferguson worked in the seventeenth century, a time when there were only a handful of native-born Scottish artists. He spent most of his career working abroad and his paintings are often compared to those by contemporary Dutch painters, undoubtedly because of the influential years he spent in Utrecht, The Hague and Amsterdam. He also travelled to Italy, but returned to London in the 1690s.
A painting, drawing or photograph depicting inanimate, everyday objects. Although the genre has been in existence since ancient times, it was popularised in Holland after the Renaissance in the sixteenth century and has continued to be explored in contemporary times.