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The Scottish Colourists It is something of a truism to say that France made the Colourists. They did, after all, first show together in Paris at the Galerie Barbazanges in 1924. Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935), John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961), George Leslie Hunter (1877-1931) and Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (1883-1937) were dubbed 'Les Peintres de l'Ecosse Moderne'. Only much later, in 1948, were they named 'Scottish Colourists' for an exhibition with T. & R. Annan in Glasgow. Four independent painters, they shared an openness to artistic ideas and a passion for European modernity. Their art was unpretentious, combining the common-sense and lyrical values so often found in Scottish art, from Raeburn to the 'Glasgow Boys' at either end of the 19th Century, with a dose of French intellectualism and a sense of identity. Three of the four had Edinburgh roots but Hunter, born in Rothesay, spent much of his formative years in California. However, they shared connections of some kind with France. Two of them had studied there: Peploe, perhaps the most consciously academic of the four, at the L'Académie Julian and the L'Académie Colarossi in the mid-1890s, to be soon followed to Julian's by Cadell. Here there was a direct connection with the 'Glasgow Boys' as Arthur Melville (a painter admired by Fergusson) had recommended to Cadell's family that he train there. In the early 1900s Fergusson and Peploe spent several painting holidays in northern France. Fergusson settled in Paris in 1907. Peploe lived there between 1910 and 1912. Hunter, self-taught like Fergusson, had paid his first visit to Paris by 1904 and may have met Fergusson and also Peploe there about 1908. By the mid-1900s Fergusson's tonal values and sense of the decorative could combine Whistlerian elegance with an expressive spontaneity. The Pink House (lot 187) is an example of this. Once settled in the French capital Peploe and Fergusson immersed themselves in the vibrant culture of the city. They took part in the café culture, attended the performances of the Ballets Russes and exhibited with French artists - Fergusson with the Société des Beaux-Arts and the Indépendants and both at the Salon d'Automne. Impressionism took a hold. As Fergusson would recall, 'Manet and Monet were the painters who fixed our direction, in Peploe's case Manet especially'. The freshness of their painting, noted for lustrous dark and creamy oils, would soon evolve under the spell of the hedonistic art of the Fauves. Scottish painterliness and the influence of both Monet (rather than Manet) and Fauvism meet in such works as Fergusson's Boulevard Raspail (lot 182), painted in 1907. Peploe's sketch of the nearby Luxembourg Gardens (lot 177) and his A Sunlit Street, Royan (lot 189), where he painted with Fergusson, have a delicious exuberance of paint colour. For studio work, Peploe would spend much time preparing a subject before starting. In a distinguished career, still life would always offer a personal choice of compositional elements and lighting. In 1912 his Still Life of Chrysanthemums (lot 193) took forward a standard approach to such painting, dark against dark with a white foreground, by introducing sensuous patterning of purple, orange, yellow and white flowers as decorative as Fergusson's Matisse-inspired still lifes of this time. Attracted by the Fauves' art of the warm south, Peploe headed in 1911 for Santec, Ile de Bréhat and Cassis, a town which had attracted Matisse and Derain in 1905. Over several years he painted this town and its buildings. These capture a sense of place through the use of local colour and the bold and distinctive red and blue outlining, a technique found also in his still lifes and in work by Fergusson. In 1913, his Parisian apartment having been demolished, Fergusson moved south, settling eventually further east in Cap d'Antibes on the Côte d'Azur where he remained until war brought him to London. After the war all four artists were regularly drawn to the south. In the 1920s all four spent several summers in Cassis and its environs - for example, Peploe painting there with Cadell from 1924 and in 1928 also with Hunter. In the 1920s Peploe and Cadell were friends enjoying popularity with their still life and landscape paintings. Both lived in Edinburgh's New Town, where they each experimented with colour combinations. Peploe used blues and oranges to particular effect in Pink Roses in a blue and white Vase with Oranges and a Jug (lot 183) and Roses in a Vase against an orange background (lot 172). The dance of form and colour in the latter is as finely tuned as an interior by Cadell. Cadell was an artist of elegant portraits and stylish interiors. In contrast to the more reserved Peploe and Hunter, he was a rather loud dresser who also lived his art, painting his drawing-room floor a glossy black and a wall bright blue or green, and filtering daylight through a vivid orange blind. Before and after the war Peploe and Cadell especially enjoyed solo shows with Scottish and London dealers, notably Edinburgh's Aitken Dott & Son and Alexander Reid's Glasgow gallery. Their exhibitions offered a mix of still life and landscape oils, and not only from their French travels. From 1912 Cadell had spent several summers painting on Iona where from 1920 he was often joined by Peploe. Their paintings of the island capture the magic of its shifting light and colours, especially the white sands and crystal-clear turquoise waters. Peploe worked structures of rocks and sand. Cadell applied areas of fresh, clear blues and greens. Their oils of Mull and Iona capture the grandeur but also the intimacy of a part of Scotland steeped in romance. Throughout their careers, the Colourists drew inspiration from the two grands maîtres of modern French art - Matisse and Cézanne. Peploe and Hunter indeed sought to combine their principles in their own work. It was Hunter who in 1925 encouraged the Glasgow collector William McInnes to buy a new still life by Matisse, La Nappe Rose (Glasgow Art Gallery). A former graphic artist, Hunter was attracted by how certain artists expressed themselves through colour and brushwork - van Gogh, Cézanne, McTaggart and Whistler among them. Hunter at his best combined fine compositions with both interesting colour and texture. If Hunter's mid-1920s Still Life with Pink Roses and Fruit (lot 178) in its tonal values steers more towards both the textural intimisme of Vuillard and the lyricism of Matisse, then his Still Life with Apples (lot 185) of a few years later is a superb homage to Cézanne. These, like most of the work of the Colourists, deserve and reward long-term familiarity. Dr. Elizabeth Cumming, art and design historian, contributed to the catalogue of the exhibition The Scottish Colourists 1900-1930 (Royal Academy and the National Galleries of Scotland) and is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. Christie's are very grateful to Dr. Elizabeth Cumming for contributing this introduction and for her assistance with the catalogue entries.

Samuel John Peploe, R.S.A. (1871-1935)

Cassis

細節

Samuel John Peploe, R.S.A. (1871-1935)
Cassis
signed 'Peploe' (lower right)
oil on panel
16 x 13 in. (40.7 x 33 cm.)
Painted in 1913.

來源

with Aitken Dott, Edinburgh.
Dr James Ritchie, Edinburgh, and by descent.

出版

G. Peploe, S. J. Peploe 1871-1935, Edinburgh, 1985, p. 23, no. 61, illustrated, as 'Street scene, Cassis'.
R. Billcliffe, The Scottish Colourists, London, 1989, pl. 43.

注意事項

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍場告示

Please note that the present lot is not illustrated in R. Billcliffe, The Scottish Colourists, London, 1989, pl. 43.

拍品專文

In 1913 Peploe and Fergusson explored the landscape around Cassis, inspired by an intensity of light not encountered before. For a further note on Cassis please see lot 175.