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Lot Essay
The engaging simplicity of Apples and Pewter Pot is an example of the mastery of colour and composition for which Peploe was justifiably renowned. Throughout his career, Peploe strove to paint the perfect still life and it was in the 1920s, when the present work was painted, that he was nearest to this ideal. In this Cézannesque study, Peploe demonstrates his skill at interpreting light, capturing folds of cloth and the reflection on the side of the flagon. The subtle colouring and geometric lines of the cloth background draw the eye to the lustrous flagon, whose shape is further emphasised by the plump and inviting pears and apples. The dark tones of the background recall the very rich vitality of his paintings from the very start of the 1900s, and at the same time the fashions of the jazz age. The result of this rhythmic harmony of subtle colour and form is a beautifully calm and contemplative painting typically found in the strongest works of this period of his oeuvre.
By the time Pewter Pot was painted, Peploe's new, looser and more full-bodied technique was fully formed, 'The war years had been a time of preparation, intensive study, and concentration on the problems of colour, form and lighting. He was like a coiled spring awaiting merely the opportunity to expand' (S. Cursiter, Peploe, Edinburgh, 1947, p. 51). The years following 1910 had been highly productive and Peploe had the luxury of popularity and acclaim after two highly successful exhibitions in 1916 and 1917, the year in which he was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Academy. During the 1920s, he was painting in a sophisticated language of delineated forms and undulating rhythmical lines. By this period in his career, the influence of Manet was less evident and had been superseded by that of Paul Cézanne's still lifes with their sensual curves, strong masculine forms, and a darker palette.
Walter Sickert, who had been invited by Alexander Reid to write an introduction to the catalogue of the 1925 exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London, had a high opinion of these new paintings. He commented, ‘In his earlier work Mr Peploe had carried on a certain kind of delicious skill to a pitch of virtuosity that might have left to mere repetition, and his present orientation has certainly been a kind of rebirth. He has transferred his unit of attention from attenuated and exquisite gradations of tone to no less skilfully related colour. And by relating all his lines with frankness to 180 degrees of two right angles, he is able to capture and digest a wider field of vision than before. And time, as the poet sings, is an important element in the gathering of roses. And it is probably for this reason that, obviously beautiful as was Mr Peploe’s earlier quality, his present one will establish itself as the more beautiful of the two'.
Peploe's still lifes have the informality of an uncleared table or disarrayed parlour, however, they were carefully considered and arranged with painstaking attention, and can be viewed as sequential steps along a path to sought-after perfection, each highly individual. 'In still-life groups and flower-pieces he struggled with simple masses of pure colour and the aim that no note in his picture should be other than a recognisable and nameable colour; the whole paraphernalia of tone had been thrown overboard. There was also the necessity of determining the areas of colour masses, and in subjects such as lemon against a blue bowl on a red tablecloth, there was a deal of consideration to be given to the amount of space each colour was to occupy of the picture surface and also, just how much 'outline' was needed, and where to place it, so that each object was fully articulated' (S. Cursiter, op. cit., p. 29).
By the time Pewter Pot was painted, Peploe's new, looser and more full-bodied technique was fully formed, 'The war years had been a time of preparation, intensive study, and concentration on the problems of colour, form and lighting. He was like a coiled spring awaiting merely the opportunity to expand' (S. Cursiter, Peploe, Edinburgh, 1947, p. 51). The years following 1910 had been highly productive and Peploe had the luxury of popularity and acclaim after two highly successful exhibitions in 1916 and 1917, the year in which he was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Academy. During the 1920s, he was painting in a sophisticated language of delineated forms and undulating rhythmical lines. By this period in his career, the influence of Manet was less evident and had been superseded by that of Paul Cézanne's still lifes with their sensual curves, strong masculine forms, and a darker palette.
Walter Sickert, who had been invited by Alexander Reid to write an introduction to the catalogue of the 1925 exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London, had a high opinion of these new paintings. He commented, ‘In his earlier work Mr Peploe had carried on a certain kind of delicious skill to a pitch of virtuosity that might have left to mere repetition, and his present orientation has certainly been a kind of rebirth. He has transferred his unit of attention from attenuated and exquisite gradations of tone to no less skilfully related colour. And by relating all his lines with frankness to 180 degrees of two right angles, he is able to capture and digest a wider field of vision than before. And time, as the poet sings, is an important element in the gathering of roses. And it is probably for this reason that, obviously beautiful as was Mr Peploe’s earlier quality, his present one will establish itself as the more beautiful of the two'.
Peploe's still lifes have the informality of an uncleared table or disarrayed parlour, however, they were carefully considered and arranged with painstaking attention, and can be viewed as sequential steps along a path to sought-after perfection, each highly individual. 'In still-life groups and flower-pieces he struggled with simple masses of pure colour and the aim that no note in his picture should be other than a recognisable and nameable colour; the whole paraphernalia of tone had been thrown overboard. There was also the necessity of determining the areas of colour masses, and in subjects such as lemon against a blue bowl on a red tablecloth, there was a deal of consideration to be given to the amount of space each colour was to occupy of the picture surface and also, just how much 'outline' was needed, and where to place it, so that each object was fully articulated' (S. Cursiter, op. cit., p. 29).