Cadell & Peploe on Iona

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1 Cadell & Peploe on Iona

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3 Cadell and Peploe on Iona The Scottish Gallery is proud to have put together this collection of oils and works on paper by two artists inextricably linked to the Gallery s own history. The exhibition coincides with the launch of Philip MacLeod Coupe s publication Paintings of Iona: Cadell and Peploe. The book charts Cadell and Peploe s painting activity on Iona, the resulting pictures of which were often exhibited with Atiken Dott. Iona is a place of astonishing beauty, pristine in an ancient sense, essentially unchanged since its complex geology settled in the Torridonian Era. The island s character lies in its archaeological traces, pagan and holy, and in its remoteness. The island is so small that any visitor arrives and looks outward; the view starts from where you have planted your feet but goes out to Mull, to Staffa, to the Treshnish Isles. Past Tiree and Coll to Rhum, south to Islay and Jura. It is this marriage between the particular character of place and its location as a platform from which to see out and beyond which must have captivated Cadell and Peploe. On Iona the merest shift of a viewpoint of a few degrees offered each a vista of new and perfect charms. Add the adventure of changing weather and the subject became limitless: an emotional and even spiritual response prevailed over the intellectual travails of winter in an Edinburgh studio, a tardy model or a wilting still life. Their visits would not always coincide but Cadell and Peploe each made an annual pilgrimage to Iona, experiences valuable to them as artists and as friends. The manifest beauty of the island required no feats of the imagination or artistic license for these two brother painters to be inspired and to leave a legacy in paint and a way of seeing now ingrained in how we feel about the Scottish landscape. Left: Sam, Denis and Margaret at the Bay at the Back of the Ocean, c Right: Cadell on Iona

4 Cadell's Iona views depicted the rocks, beaches and hills reduced to geometrical forms. Painted mainly on 15 x 18 inch uniform boards that could easily be carried around by the artist, they were prepared with a white absorbent ground. To realise the chalky appearance of sand, Cadell would dab most of the oil out of the paint before applying it resulting in the brilliant white overall effect, suggestive of the characteristic light of the island. F.C.B. Cadell The Shore at Calbha, Iona oil on canvas board, 35.5 x cms signed lower left Provenance: The Estate of Mr A. Sharp, Glasgow

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6 Peploe first visited Iona in 1919 and was a regular and frequent visitor until The Iona subjects were very popular and helped cement his reputation in the 1920s. Iona is a small island, dominated by the green of the machair but Peploe only painted at the North End where sand and rocks give way to sea and the islands beyond. He never painted a single blade of grass! S.J. Peploe Rocks, Iona, c.1920 oil on panel, 36.8 x 44 cms Provenance: Fine Art Society, London; The Fleming Collection, London, 1968; Private Collection

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8 F.C.B. Cadell Iona North End and Ben More, Mull oil on panel, 36 x 43 cms signed lower right & inscribed with title verso Provenance: Ian MacNicol, Glasgow

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10 S.J. Peploe Iona, c.1927 oil on canvas, 51 x 61 cms signed lower left Note: Painting of two boys verso Provenance Private Collection, Edinburgh

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12 F.C.B. Cadell The Pier at Cove - Loch Long oil on panel, 45.5 x 38 cms Signed lower left Provenance: Katharine Tennant

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14 S.J. Peploe White Sands, Iona, 1924 oil on panel, 37.5 x 44.5 cm signed lower right Provenance Major Ion Harrison, and by descent Exhibited Glasgow, McLellan Galleries, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by S.J.Peploe, R.S.A., February 1937, no. 44, as 'Rough Sea Iona'. Glasgow, McLellan Galleries, The Thistle Foundation, Pictures from a Private Collection, March 1951, no. 44. London and Edinburgh, Fine Art Society, Three Scottish Colourists, February - April 1977, no. 29. London, Lefevre Gallery, Two Scottish Colourists: Samuel John Peploe, R.S.A. and Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, November - December 1988, no. 7, as 'Rough Sea, Iona'

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16 Paintings of Iona: Cadell and Peploe Author: Philip MacLeod Coupe with foreword by Guy Peploe Published by the heirs of Philip MacLeod Coupe, 2014 Edition limited to 500 copies Paintings of Iona: Cadell and Peploe is a combination of picture book, guide book and reference book. It brings together a larger number of illustrations of paintings of Iona by the two Scottish Colourists than any previous publication. The illustrations are accompanied by present day photographs of the landscape for direct comparison with the paintings, the locations of which are precisely identified in a series of maps. The author first painted on Iona in 1999 and returned every year until his death in Always painting out of doors, on location, he became increasingly familiar with the topography of the island, its rocky shores and sandy beaches. This knowledge combined with his admiration for the paintings of Cadell and Peploe led to his writing this study of their work. Book Launch Tuesday 3rd September, 6:30-8:30pm

17 Please contact the Gallery to order a copy of the book. Price: 30 Above: Photograph of the Author Right: Front cover of Paintings of Iona: Cadell and Peploe

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