Still Life - Roses and Apples

Artist Samuel John Peploe (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1871 - 1935)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 56.3 cm, Width: 49 cm
Frame: Height: 78.6 cm, Width: 68.7 cm

AcquisitionBequeathed in 1959 by Dr W F Croll.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG004092

Keywords

About MeFor Peploe, colour was all. Like Cézanne he used blocks of colour architecturally, balancing mass against mass.

Pigments were used straight from the tube and his compositions become, as here, mosaics of primary colours separated from one another, sometimes, by black or blue outlines which help to modify or accentuate the colours or to emphasise the shapes represented.

The 1920s was perhaps the most successful decade for the Colourists. They showed their work in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Paris and New York. Throughout this time Peploe particularly worked on still life painting with an almost missionary zeal;

'There is so much in mere objects, flowers, leaves, jugs, what not - colours, forms, relation - I can never see the mystery coming to an end'.

Tulips - which had been a favourite subject during the war years - continued to appeal to Peploe but gradually roses and fruit replaced them. The field of view narrowed, with little if any of the studio visible. The crisp brushwork of the 1920s became softer. Both Cadell and Peploe came to favour somewhat acidic tones and an almost deliberate clumsiness.

It is for these immediately recognisable still lifes that The Colourists are best known and for which they have now found international acclaim.