Lot Essay
Prior to Peploe's departure to Paris in 1910, he had become increasingly disillusioned by the staleness of Edinburgh's artistic indifference towards the aesthetics of modern painting. Ever since Fergusson and he had spent the summer of 1907 at Paris-Plage. Fergusson had tried many times to encourage Peploe to come to Paris. On many occasions, he wrote of the ever growing pace of change to artistic and literary theory, and of the division between the two cities 'Something new had started and I was very much intrigued. But there was no language for it that made sense in Edinburgh or London - an expresion like 'The logic of line' meant something in Paris that it couldn't mean in Edinburgh'.
By 1910, Peploe together with his new wife Margaret Mackay settled in Paris at a studio apartment on the Boulevard Raspail, and soon became part of the ever increasing core of Anglo-American artists attracted to the city. Over the next few years, Peploe's work underwent a revolutionary re-alignment of artistic and theoretical change in his analysis of colour, form and structure, which was continually being re-appraised by the annual exhibitions at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Independents. During this time, he was still more interested with the treatment of landscape 'en plein air', though increasingly under the influence of the fauvists, and of their forerunner Van Gogh.
This painting has in both structure and execution clearly some affinity to the expressionism of the Dutch master, though it also has a distinct construction of form which can only be accredited to Peploe. The azalea is positioned close to the lower frontal edge and occupies almost the entire picture surface which is a complex synthesis of alternate planes of colour, punctuated by the angularity of a lemon and oranges, and contrasted by the textural use of a deep impasto of paint so reminiscient of Van Gogh paintings.
By 1910, Peploe together with his new wife Margaret Mackay settled in Paris at a studio apartment on the Boulevard Raspail, and soon became part of the ever increasing core of Anglo-American artists attracted to the city. Over the next few years, Peploe's work underwent a revolutionary re-alignment of artistic and theoretical change in his analysis of colour, form and structure, which was continually being re-appraised by the annual exhibitions at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Independents. During this time, he was still more interested with the treatment of landscape 'en plein air', though increasingly under the influence of the fauvists, and of their forerunner Van Gogh.
This painting has in both structure and execution clearly some affinity to the expressionism of the Dutch master, though it also has a distinct construction of form which can only be accredited to Peploe. The azalea is positioned close to the lower frontal edge and occupies almost the entire picture surface which is a complex synthesis of alternate planes of colour, punctuated by the angularity of a lemon and oranges, and contrasted by the textural use of a deep impasto of paint so reminiscient of Van Gogh paintings.