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拍品專文
'Perhaps more than any other Scottish artist this century, Peploe was concerned with picture-making, placing it above personal expression or characterisation of the motif. Indeed, in his pictures, whether they be still lifes, landscapes or even figure pieces, we learn very little about the artist’s feelings or the things he paints. Peploe was above all interested in the paint and the way it went on to the canvas' (K. Hartley, foreword, exhibition catalogue, S.J. Peploe, Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 1985, p. 3).
In 1905 Samuel John Peploe moved out of his studio in Shandwick Place, Edinburgh to a new space where more light could flood through the windows. Looking at his works from before and after this time, the transition is evident in the colour composition he employs, and a new paler colour palette replaces the darker backgrounds found at Shandwick Place. Peploe is lauded for his attentive application of colour to his carefully thought out compositions, his studios forming another character in his scenes.
The Ginger Jar is an example his lighter works, after the move, in which Peploe combines a variety of cream fabrics, with light even reaching into the darker blue-green cloth in the back left of the frame. The composition of this still life focusses on a table-top that feels recently vacated, with fruit escaping the fruit bowl, and a cloth napkin left crumpled in the foreground, as through someone has just left their seat at the table. The titular ginger jar sits comfortably in the middle, Peploe setting the viewer at the table to enjoy the spread. Ginger jars have often been used as decorative objects, after their original function of storing and transporting rare spices, such as ginger. Originating in ancient China, they came over to western Europe where wealthy families adopted them as decorative objects more often than functional tableware.
Peploe declared his intent to live his life as a painter very early on in life. His mother died when he was a child, and his father died not long after, while Peploe was still at school. His trustees and half-brother firmly resisted the idea of his becoming a painter, suggesting instead a career in law or the army. Instead he entered classes at Edinburgh College of Art, never looking back. It was an artistic career that took him to live among the vibrant artistic café society of Montparnasse in the early 1910s, out to paint in the French countryside, and on study trips to Amsterdam as early as 1895 to marvel over the paintings by the Dutch Masters in person. In his essay, ‘S. J Peploe Painter in Oils’ for the Scottish National Gallery exhibition S.J. Peploe 1871-1931, Guy Peploe, the artist’s grandson, describes how Peploe waited patiently for the Rijksmuseum to open, making a bee-line for the Hals room, ducking under the ropes to get closer to study the master’s technique up-close. Other inspirations visible in Peploe’s work are the compositional elements employed by Manet, an artist to whom he was especially drawn.
Between 1904 and 1907, he enjoyed a series of painting holidays on the northern coast of France with his friend and fellow artist, John Duncan Fergusson. While abroad, they were not only able to see the work of European painters in person, but they were also able to experiment freely with their technique while painting en plein air at the coast. The Ginger Jar, although likely to have been painted later on in the artist’s lifetime, retains much of the impressionistic brushwork that Peploe experimented with during this time. While he pays close attention to each element in the image, the objects are still only hinted at. The fruit and cloth are particularly delineated in larger, broader strokes of paint, drawing the eye towards the elegant jar in the centre. Another key influence for Peploe was the master impressionist, Paul Cézanne. Indeed Peploe is often credited with being the only artist in Britain who fully understood what Cézanne was trying to do with colour and form at the time: ‘Paul Cézanne’s investigation of the underlying structure of the visual world in terms of its geometry while at the same time trying to reveal its truth and charm chimed well with Peploe ... both men were inspired by an infinity of relationships in nature all worthy of close examination’ (G. Peploe, ibid., pp. 53-54).
The muted tones in The Ginger Jar demonstrate his mastery in delicately balancing a limited colour palette: in this case the brown-grey and blue shadowing neatly, and elegantly, converge.
In 1905 Samuel John Peploe moved out of his studio in Shandwick Place, Edinburgh to a new space where more light could flood through the windows. Looking at his works from before and after this time, the transition is evident in the colour composition he employs, and a new paler colour palette replaces the darker backgrounds found at Shandwick Place. Peploe is lauded for his attentive application of colour to his carefully thought out compositions, his studios forming another character in his scenes.
The Ginger Jar is an example his lighter works, after the move, in which Peploe combines a variety of cream fabrics, with light even reaching into the darker blue-green cloth in the back left of the frame. The composition of this still life focusses on a table-top that feels recently vacated, with fruit escaping the fruit bowl, and a cloth napkin left crumpled in the foreground, as through someone has just left their seat at the table. The titular ginger jar sits comfortably in the middle, Peploe setting the viewer at the table to enjoy the spread. Ginger jars have often been used as decorative objects, after their original function of storing and transporting rare spices, such as ginger. Originating in ancient China, they came over to western Europe where wealthy families adopted them as decorative objects more often than functional tableware.
Peploe declared his intent to live his life as a painter very early on in life. His mother died when he was a child, and his father died not long after, while Peploe was still at school. His trustees and half-brother firmly resisted the idea of his becoming a painter, suggesting instead a career in law or the army. Instead he entered classes at Edinburgh College of Art, never looking back. It was an artistic career that took him to live among the vibrant artistic café society of Montparnasse in the early 1910s, out to paint in the French countryside, and on study trips to Amsterdam as early as 1895 to marvel over the paintings by the Dutch Masters in person. In his essay, ‘S. J Peploe Painter in Oils’ for the Scottish National Gallery exhibition S.J. Peploe 1871-1931, Guy Peploe, the artist’s grandson, describes how Peploe waited patiently for the Rijksmuseum to open, making a bee-line for the Hals room, ducking under the ropes to get closer to study the master’s technique up-close. Other inspirations visible in Peploe’s work are the compositional elements employed by Manet, an artist to whom he was especially drawn.
Between 1904 and 1907, he enjoyed a series of painting holidays on the northern coast of France with his friend and fellow artist, John Duncan Fergusson. While abroad, they were not only able to see the work of European painters in person, but they were also able to experiment freely with their technique while painting en plein air at the coast. The Ginger Jar, although likely to have been painted later on in the artist’s lifetime, retains much of the impressionistic brushwork that Peploe experimented with during this time. While he pays close attention to each element in the image, the objects are still only hinted at. The fruit and cloth are particularly delineated in larger, broader strokes of paint, drawing the eye towards the elegant jar in the centre. Another key influence for Peploe was the master impressionist, Paul Cézanne. Indeed Peploe is often credited with being the only artist in Britain who fully understood what Cézanne was trying to do with colour and form at the time: ‘Paul Cézanne’s investigation of the underlying structure of the visual world in terms of its geometry while at the same time trying to reveal its truth and charm chimed well with Peploe ... both men were inspired by an infinity of relationships in nature all worthy of close examination’ (G. Peploe, ibid., pp. 53-54).
The muted tones in The Ginger Jar demonstrate his mastery in delicately balancing a limited colour palette: in this case the brown-grey and blue shadowing neatly, and elegantly, converge.