Let's continue the Dutch art thread that started with yesterday's post by looking at three works on display at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.
The first one is "Six Butterflies and a Moth on a Rose Branch" (1690 ca.) by William Gouw Ferguson. A rare and exquisite still life, it was probably painted in the Netherlands in the late 17th century. Of Scottish parentage, Gouw Fersuon was born around 1632 and settled in Utrecht in 1648, joining the local painters' gild.
At the time the city rivalled Amsterdam - another major centre of still life production - for its artistic culture. Gouw Ferguson worked also in The Hague and in Amsterdam, where he married in 1621. He was appreciated for decorative compositions of dead game in the style of his Dutch contemporaries Jan Vonck and Willem van Aeslt. This still life was so detailed that the butterflies were identified as Small Heath, Common Blue, Meadow Brown, Red Admiral, Small White, and a Painted Lady. The single moth instead is a Large Yellow Underwing.
The second painting is "A Guardroom Interior" (1657) by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout. Born in Amsterdam and trained with Rembrandt from about 1635 van den Eeckhout spent his career in his native city and concentrated on historical paintings, depicting biblical and mythological subjects as well. This is one of the few guardroom scenes he painted, most of which date from the mid-1650s. Eeckhout had superb colouring skills similar to works by Gerard ter Borch the Younger, as proved by the intense shades of green employed for the woman's dress.
The third painting is "The Disputed Reckoning" (1658) by Pieter de Hooch. He worked in Delft and Amsterdam and was one of the leading artists of the Delft School, whose most famous painter was Johannes Vermeer. He painted genre scenes such as domestic everyday themes and merry companies in courtyards and interiors. The architecture of the room in this painting is particularly interesting with its black and white checkered floor and draped curtain. The scene depicts a man confronted by the hostess with a coin too small to cover his bill (hence the title of the picture).
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