Farquharson was most adept at capturing the warmth and light of sun rises and twilight. The watershed in his career was marked by three or four winters spent from 1880 onwards in Paris. There he studied under Carolus-Duran, an admirer of Velázquez. Carolus-Duran taught his students to use the brush straight away and think in terms of form and colour. As a result, Farquharson's work was always characterized by richly handled paint. Many of his paintings were completed in the north east of Scotland at his beloved Finzean. In 1885 he went to North Africa. Among the works created during the subsequent 8 years were "The Egyptian" and "On the Banks of the Nile outside Cairo". These paintings are excellent but often go forgotten today.