£80,000
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture | 466
Auction: 9 June 2016 at 19:00 BST
Signed, and inscribed on a label verso, oil on board
Provenance: The Wood Collection
Exhibited: Royal Scottish Academy Festival Exhibition 1949, Peploe, Cadell & Hunter
Note:
Along with an impeccable sense of style, Cadell also demonstrated ample versatility as an artist. The beautiful landscape offered here is evidence of this. He was particularly attached to and spiritually stimulated by the island of Iona. Indeed, during Cadell's time in the trenches during WW1, his letters to his close friend S. J. Peploe speak of his longing to return to Iona and the safe haven that it represented to him.
Interested in (and adored by) the local community on Iona, he often painted the abbey, crofts, and the farmers herding their cows or working their crops. Ever reluctant to return to Edinburgh where his financial realities awaited him, the work Cadell produced en plein air in Iona reveals a different aspect of his character to the elegant still lifes and interiors painted back in Auld Reekie. Here his work exudes an upbeat freshness. His technique loosened as his mood unwound and his Iona subjects display a deft airiness evocative of breezy, carefree summer days.