Lot 145
FRANCIS CAMPBELL BOILEAU CADELL R.S.A., R.S.W. (SCOTTISH 1883-1937)
IONA, NORTH SHORE
£37,700
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Sale | Lots 103-196 | Thursday 05 December from 6pm
Description
Signed, inscribed ‘Absorbent Ground / Never varnish / G. W. Service Esq / Myrtle Park.’ on the reverse, oil on board
Dimensions
37cm x 45cm (14.5in x 17.5in)
Provenance
Acquired from the Artist by George W. Service, Glasgow, and thence by descent to the present owner.
Footnote
Iona, North Shore epitomises the inspiration Cadell found on the Hebridean island of Iona, as well as his friendship with the Glasgow shipowner George W. Service (1864-1940), who acquired the painting from the artist and from whom it has descended to the present owner.
Cadell visited Iona for the first time in 1912 and returned regularly until at least 1933. Its gentle light, natural beauty and expansive views provided endless subject matter for his paint and watercolour brushes. He made the most of its ever-changing weather conditions and varying topography during trips that could last from between three and five months over the spring and summer. Initially he stayed at the St Columba Hotel, but later he rented various cottages, most frequently Cnoc cúil Phàil which is set looking over the Sound of Iona to Mull.
Congenial outdoor working conditions and the company of friends such as fellow Scottish Colourist S. J. Peploe from 1920, resulted in joyous images of Iona’s natural environment, architectural features and the islanders’ way of life. Cadell was particularly drawn to the North End of the island, as seen in Iona, North Shore. It is a classic image of the island’s famed white sand beaches, through which varied rock formations emerge, the inviting blues and greens of the sea and the beckoning of island views beyond.
As in the present painting, Cadell often worked on easily transportable boards measuring 15 x 18 inches. He came to adopt a technique deployed by his friend, the artist John Duncan, of using an absorbent white ground. As a result, many of Cadell’s Iona paintings carry the carefully inscribed legend on their reverse of ‘Absorbent Ground Never Varnish’; in this case, it is accompanied by the inscription ‘G. W. Service Esq Myrtle Park’, presumably applied by the artist when it was acquired by his longstanding patron.
Cadell met Service during his first trip to Iona and he became one of his most significant supporters. As Alice Strang has explained: ‘The widowed Service came each year with his eight children and their nanny. They often rented the farmhouse at Traighmòr, although as it was not large enough to accommodate all of them his sons had to sleep in a tent on the grass at the front of the house. Service would don his tartan dress jacket for the night of his annual purchase of paintings by Cadell…He often bought several paintings at a time…which he hung in his homes in Glasgow and Dunbartonshire.’ (Alice Strang, F C B Cadell, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2011, pp.79-80)
The importance of Service to Cadell is borne out by the frequency with which he appears in the artist’s ‘Register of Pictures’ (on loan from a private collection to the National Galleries of Scotland) between 1913 and 1930, which Cadell maintained to record works which he sold or gave away. As well as his Iona purchases, Service’s patronage extended to commissioning portraits of some of his children and acquisitions from exhibitions on the mainland, such as those mounted by the Society of Eight in Edinburgh. Service’s support sometimes formed the backbone of Cadell’s income, for example when he purchased fourteen works in 1921 for a total of £725, which was 40% of Cadell’s recorded total sales of £1,786 for the year. Service also helped to establish Cadell’s posthumous reputation, not least by lending three of his paintings to the landmark Exhibition of Scottish Art mounted at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1939.
Iona paintings and watercolours by Cadell can be found in numerous public collections including those of the National Galleries of Scotland, Aberdeen Art Gallery, the Hunterian Art Gallery (University of Glasgow) and McManus Museum & Art Gallery, Dundee.
