£187,500
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture ft. S.J. Peploe at 150 | 668
Auction: Scottish Paintings & Sculpture ft. S.J. Peploe at 150
Signed, oil on canvas
Provenance: The Collection of the late R. L. MacDonald
Exhibited: Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, S. J. Peploe, F. C. B. Cadell and Leslie Hunter: Festival Exhibition, 1949
Note: A highly successful phase in Peploe’s career began with his move to a new studio at 54 Shandwick Place, Edinburgh in 1917, the end of World War One and the development of a close working relationship with his fellow Scottish Colourist, F. C. B. Cadell, once the latter was demobilised. The Statuette is a fine example of the assured still lifes which Peploe created thereafter, which were regularly exhibited throughout the 1920s and which proved to have immediate and enduring popularity.
This painting reveals the care with which Peploe arranged his props, from drapery in the background to open book in the foreground. As his niece, Margery Porter, recalled ‘The studio was a large one, round which I would prowl entranced, after strict warnings not to disturb the still-life group which would almost inevitably be covering the table. My uncle would arrange and re-arrange these groups for perhaps three days before he was satisfied that the balance and construction were perfect, then he would paint them quite rapidly.’
One of Peploe’s favourite still-life objects, the titular cast of a torso of Venus, is key to the success of The Statuette's composition. His pleasure in colour and reflections, as well as his mastery of rhythm and structure, are clear. This work was included in the Festival Exhibition of work by Peploe and his fellow Scottish Colourists F. C. B. Cadell and G. L. Hunter, held at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh in 1949.