Lot Essay
Peploe first visited the island of Barra with his brother Willy and R C Robertson in 1897, returning there most summers until 1905. During this early period in his life, Peploe enjoyed sketching the white sandy beaches, dark headlands and small communities of this remote Hebridean Island under the subdued light of the Western Isles. Though only a small number of these "en plein air" panels appeared to have survived, it is interesting to assess the development of his painting from the mainly tonal works to the later years of 1903/04, where he has adopted a more creamy texture of paint handled in a more spontaneous colour manner.
Stanley Cursiter in his biography describes the development of his painting during this time 'We must go back to 1902 and the pictures painted at Comrie when he had already shown a feeling for a more impressionistic interpretation of nature' In the intervening years the conditions under which he worked turned his attention more particularly to tone, and to an interest in the technique of painting within the limits set by the fluid medium he had adopted.
Stanley Cursiter in his biography describes the development of his painting during this time 'We must go back to 1902 and the pictures painted at Comrie when he had already shown a feeling for a more impressionistic interpretation of nature' In the intervening years the conditions under which he worked turned his attention more particularly to tone, and to an interest in the technique of painting within the limits set by the fluid medium he had adopted.
