Still Life with Melon and Apples

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

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsSight Size: Height: 30.2 cm, Width: 45.8 cm
Frame: Height: 49 cm, Width: 64.1 cm

AcquisitionAlan Forrest Stark Bequest, 1984.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG004756

Keywords

About MeIn 1909 Peploe exhibited at the Salon d'Automne of which his friend J.D. Fergusson was a "sociétaire". He came into contact with many avant-garde artists, including Pablo Picasso. Peploe's own work became looser in technique and more colourful and spontaneous at this time.

Although S.J. Peploe's work undergoes a dramatic change of style and technique from the luscious early still-lifes to the mature Colourist paintings, he consistently displays a sensitive reaction to the varying qualities of surface in each of the subjects under scrutiny.
An austerity, combined with a wonderful sense of design, characterises this late work by Peploe. The bold use of colour and simple treatment of the circular forms of the fruit owes much to the art of Paul Cézanne. His palette is restricted but the whole effect is a dazzling arrangement of colour and form painted in rich, buttery paint.