Description
Signed, oil on canvas
Dimensions
63.5cm x 76cm (25in x 30in)
Footnote
Provenance:Alex Reid & Lefevre Ltd, Glasgow
T.R.Craig Esq C.B.E. and thence by descent
Exhibited:The Scottish Arts Council, Three Scottish Colourists 1970
Note:
The paintings produced by S.J. Peploe and F.C.B. Cadell over twenty years from 1912 to 1933 on the tiny Scottish island of Iona are among the finest of their oeuvres. Both artists were much taken by the unique character of the island, which had been attracting artists for many years, including John Duncan and James Paterson.
With its often bright green water and pale white sands Iona offered the perfect landscape location, in the bright Hebridean summers, for these artists whose palettes naturally reflected the hues of warmer climes. The island offered a plentiful supply of subjects: from views across the sand and sea to Staffa and Mull, to island landmarks the nunnery and abbey, along with charming rural farms and crofts. While Cadell had visited the island to paint before the Great War it was only in 1920 that Peploe accompanied him for the first time.
While Peploe painted almost exclusively in the north of the island, Cadell tended to experiment with location. Distant features of his paintings include the Dutchman's Cap, Lunga and Rhum in the north and in the south images of the shoreline including the Marble Quarry and views of and from the south of the island. From the extreme south he would have seen the tidal island of Erraid, famous from the works of R.L. Stevenson, situated just off the Ross of Mull.
It seems possible that this view was painted either while on an excursion to Erraid, or from a vantage point on the south east coast of Iona itself, perhaps close to the Marble Quarry. The painting bears similarities, not least of composition and viewpoint, to one other known painting by Cadell of the Paps of Jura from this direction, Traigh Geal, Erraid, painted circa 1925 (private collection).
The Blue Mountain is a distinctive depiction of Iona in Cadell's oeuvre. Working on a slightly larger scale, he is still focussed on capturing the topography of the landscape surrounding the western island, and the wonderful light that emerges in that part of the world, but it is evoked with a different approach. Here, his colours are cool and clear and his brushwork deliberate and sparse. Icy blues, lilacs and light greens pattern around the white foreground sand and burgundy brown rocks, while the paint is thinly applied, with directional brushwork creating texture and a graphic quality. The technique and colour may be a little experimental but the result is captivating, revealing another facet of this artist's talent and a different atmosphere of this dramatic locale.