Left: the Fergusson Gallery is one of only four public or national galleries in Scotland dedicated to the work of a single artist. © Perth and Kinross Council.
Urgent repairs needed to save the Fergusson Gallery from closure are set to be carried out following the award of a £900,000 grant.
Housed in an A-listed former waterworks, the Perth gallery is dedicated to the work of Scottish colourist John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961), holding around 200 of his paintings as well as letters, catalogues and sculptures.
Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Scotland and Perth and Kinross Council, the award will be used to carry out urgent conservation work on the building's cast iron upper storey.
Right: Blue Submarine, Portsmouth Harbour 1918, John Duncan Fergusson. © Perth and Kinross Council.
Mike Taylor, Head of Arts and Heritage at Perth and Kinross Council told the 24 Hour Museum how repairs will close the gallery for around 15 months, but would ultimately save it.
“What it will mean is that for the foreseeable future, the building will be safe for visitors,” he explained.
“The gallery is in what was the old waterworks in Perth, built in 1832, and the whole upper storey is made of ornamented cast iron plates. As soon as the water was drained the bolts started to corrode, which would have led to the closure of the gallery.”
Left: Mike Taylor explained the significance of the institution: "a dedicated gallery to one of four Scottish colourists, it would be a terrible shame if it disappeared." © Perth and Kinross Council.
“The building appears to be absolutely unique. It is A-listed, the highest degree of protection in Scotland, in its own right. There is no other structure like it.”
Mike explained how the 192 cast iron panels would be dismantled and taken away to undergo specialist conservation work.
“This sort of project would not have been possible without the grant giving bodies. No-one has done cast iron conservation on this scale, it is breaking new ground.”
Right: Eastre, Hymn to the Sun, 1924, John Duncan Fergusson. © Perth and Kinross Council.
John Duncan Fergusson was born in Leith, Edinburgh to Perthshire parents and was largely self-taught. Much of his early career was spent in Paris where he became close to the pre-1914 modernist movement.
The bulk of his work was donated to Perth and Kinross Council in 1991 by the JD Fergusson Art Foundation, established in 1963 by his companion Margaret Morris in order to gain greater recognition for him and his art.
The gallery opened in 1992 and in the same year was named the Scottish Post Office Museum of the Year.
