FRANCIS CAMPBELL BOILEAU CADELL R.S.A., R.S.W. (SCOTTISH 1883-1937)
GIRL IN AN INTERIOR
Estimate: £7,000 - £10,000
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Sale | Lots 112- 206 | Thursday 05 June from 6pm
Description
Signed, oil on canvas laid down
Dimensions
28cm x 21cm (11in x 8.25in)
Provenance
James Hay Gauldie (1872-1956) and thence by descent to the present owners
Footnote
Girl in an Interior is an early example of the Scottish Colourist F. C. B. Cadell’s work and encompasses several strands that were to become celebrated within his practice. A standing female figure, possibly his sister Jean Dunlop Cadell (1884-1967) given her red hair, is positioned on the border of one space as it gives on to another. This compositional device was to be used to great effect when Cadell depicted items such as a Louis XV-style armchair on the threshold between the front and rear adjoining rooms in his home at 6 Ainslie Place in Edinburgh’s Georgian New Town during the 1920s.
Elegant women portrayed in stylish interiors, often modelled by his childhood neighbour Bethia Hamilton Don Wauchope (1864-1944) and depicted in Cadell’s earlier studio at 130 George Street in the Scottish capital, brought him acclaim and success in the pre-First World War period.
Girl in an Interior shows how the emerging artist’s confidence in the use of colour, here seen most effectively in the high-toned blue of the door to the figure’s left and the gestural application of paint with brushstroke and layers clearly visible, was growing. Cadell’s enjoyment of his material is clear in passages such as the expressive swipes of his brush in horizontal and diagonal motions in the lower right and upper central areas of the image. This kind of bravado was to develop into triumphant paintings including the Self-portrait of c.1914, now in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland (acc.no.PG 3755).