White Roses

The quest for the perfect still life absorbed Peploe for the greater part of his life, almost to the point of obsession, as his brother-in-law, Frederick Porter recounted, 'All his still life[s] were carefully arranged and considered before he put them on canvas. When this was done - it often took several days to accomplish - he seemed to have absorbed everything necessary for transmitting them to canvas. The result was a canvas covered without any apparent effort. If a certain touch was wrong it was soon obliterated by the palette knife. The whole canvas had to be finished in one painting so as to preserve complete continuity. If, in his judgement, it was not right then the whole painting was scraped out and painted again' (see F.P. Porter, The Art of S.J. Peploe, New Alliance, VI, no. 6, 1945-46, p. 7).

The various compositional elements of the present work can be seen in many of other Peploe's paintings. A variety of blue-and-white pots are used as vases, a fan with a long black ribbon and a low dish with a blue rim accompanied by fresh-cut flowers and fruit frequently appear. A device he often favoured was the disposition of an oval mirror on a white backdrop, invariably cut by the top of the picture-plane. A similar composition can be seen in Still-life with Mixed Roses (circa 1922, private collection) (see G. Peploe, S.J. Peploe, Edinburgh, 2000, p. 136, pl. 85).