Lyon & Turnbull
Lot 78
SAMUEL JOHN PEPLOE R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1871-1935) A STILL LIFE OF APPLES AND PEARS Signed, oil on canvas 44.5cm x 41cm (17.5in x 16in) and verso 'Portrait of a young woman' Provenance:Alex Reid & Lefevre Ltd, London Note: This subtly tonal still life is typical of Peploe's work of the late 1920s and early 1930s. By this time he had left behind the vivid primaries of his earlier paintings of the late war years and early 1920s and adopted an altogether more muted palette. Hailed in 1926 by the Scotsman as a 'Scottish Cezanne', Peploe shows himself in this picture and others known to have been painted during this period, to have mastered a rare harmony of colour and form. Clearly he recognised his profound debt to the French painter, always keeping a copy of one of Cezanne's works pinned to the wall of his studio, which at this time was at 54 Shandwick Place in Edinburgh. Peploe had moved here in 1917, during the war and would remain here until 1934 and his move to nearby Castle Street. Perhaps Peploe's most obviously Cezanne-esque still life is that now in Aberdeen Art Gallery, dated to 1930, in which the brushwork is less apparent than in the picture shown here and the forms altogether more clearly defined. The work on offer here builds on that experience and bears more of a resemblance in handling to another still life in the collection of Kirkcaldy Art Gallery, dated to 1931 and it may be from a similar date. It was an important year for the Colourists, for it was in 1931 that the four painters showed together for the second time in a Paris group exhibition, Les Peintres Eccossais, at the Galerie Georges Petit, along with Telfer Bear and Dunlop. With an introduction by the British Prime Minister, Ramsay Macdonald, the show contained ten works by Peploe, including still lifes with roses and fruit, and views of Iona. From this group Peploe sold a landscape, Le Foret, a view of Cassis, to the French government and on his return to Scotland held a successful solo show at Reid and Lefevre in Glasgow. It is interesting to note that another still life, on long loan to Birmingham Museums, includes the same wine glass shown in the current picture and is largely painted with the same palette. While this has been dated to 1927-1929, it may well be slightly later, given its similarity. More importantly, when establishing dates, the Kirkcaldy picture is united with the current painting by the bold facets used on the fruit, the brushwork of the highlights on the apples and the use of broad strokes of brown and violet in the areas of darkest shade. All three works possess a delicacy of touch and a sensitivity which emphasises the fragility and mutability of their subject matter in a way which perfectly echoes the underlying principles of Peploe's prevailing French inspiration.
![*After Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516). Sorgheloos Leven [The Dissolute Household], circa 1630-50, copper engraving on laid pap](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/c1775602-4d43-4b5d-ab58-a78400ea6231/f4780c65-b09f-4256-8050-3dcaa4e2577a/468x382.jpg)
