In notes that Peploe’s wife, Margaret Mackay, prepared to assist Stanley Cursiter in the writing of his 1947 monograph about the artist, she wrote:
“Sam moved again, this time to Raeburn’s house [at] 32 York Place. He liked to change his studio every five years so to get a new shape of room, different lighting – a complete change. The new studio was a beautiful room with a big window, it had a lovely white marble Adam mantlepiece. Sam had the walls distempered a very pale pinkish grey. On the floor he put a black polished linoleum. There was a white sofa, a chair or two, his nice bureau, a throne and easel.”
(S. J. Peploe Archive, National Galleries of Scotland Archive, GMA A112/2/1)
As Alice Strang has explained:
‘Peploe’s new bright and spacious surroundings had an immediate impact on his work and he began to paint in a lighter key, employing a looser, less disciplined technique and large canvases ... using a new model Peggy [sic] Macrae, he embarked on a series of celebrated figures studies ... which reveal an interest in James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) ... In Peploe’s images of Macrae, her elegance and beauty are secondary to the sense of execution, as he emphasised colour harmony and sweeping line.’
(Alice Strang et al, S. J. Peploe, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2012, pp.19-20).
The White Dress illustrates Margaret’s description of Peggie as an ‘extremely charming, graceful and attractive girl. Sam painted her a lot. She also sat for F. C. B. Cadell, Stanley Cursiter and Pittendrigh Macgillivray the sculptor ... She was unique as a model. She became any character one suggested.’ (op.cit.)
Peploe’s professional standing developed apace during the three years he spent at 32 York Place. The first of his works was acquired for a public collection, when Still Life (Culture Edinburgh acc.no. CAC4/1964) was purchased by the Scottish Modern Arts Association in 1907. The following year, he showed in London for the first time, in various group exhibitions and in 1909 he had his second solo exhibition, at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh. In 1910, he and Margaret married and moved to Paris where a new chapter in his career began.
Several works from the same series as The White Dress are in public collections, including Lady in a White Dress in the Fleming Collection (acc.no. FWAF/RF26) and Peggy McCrae in Kirkcaldy Galleries (acc.no. KIRMG:317). The latter formerly belonged to Peploe’s major patron, the Kirkcaldy linen manufacturer John Waldegrave Blyth (1873-1962). Such was the importance and interest of the series’ theme to Peploe, that he was to return to it in the 1920s in paintings such as Girl in the White Dress in The Burrell Collection (acc.no. 35.587).
The White Dress remained in Peploe’s family into the next generation, descending to his son, the artist Denis Peploe (1914-93) who gave it to his wife, the musician Elizabeth Barr (1936-2025). It was selected for inclusion in both major exhibitions of Peploe’s work staged by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, in 1985 and 2012.
