Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell RSA RSW

(British, 1883-1937)

The Island of Rhum, from Iona

Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, UK; bequeathed to present owners in 2006.

Cadell first travelled to Iona in 1912, and the island had a profound impact on him, prompting extended visits of three to five months most years from that point. The artist connected not only with its immense natural beauty, but also the sense of spirituality which has long captivated visitors to the island and have led to it becoming a site of religious pilgrimage.

Keen to share in his love for the place, whilst serving during the First World War, Cadell wrote to his friend and fellow Scottish Colourist Peploe:

"When the War is over I shall go to the Hebrides, recover some virtues I have lost. There is something marvellous about those western seas. Oh, Iona. We must all go together."
(A. Strang et al, S. J. Peploe, Edinburgh, 2012, p. 24)

Peploe first visited with Cadell in 1920, and he too was captivated by Iona. With paintings of the island becoming a key subject for both artists for the rest of their lives. The two artists visiting together and exploring the compact island; the carefree and convivial nature of these visits perhaps expressed by the loose, immediate, and expressive way in which they captured the landscape.

Possibly most distinctive in Cadell's work from the island is his ability to render the subtleties of changing light. In The Island of Rhum, from Iona, there are areas of intense brightness where the sun reflects off the sand and rocks, and other more gentle or darker areas, perhaps muted by passing cloud cover. This skill in his work creates a softly layered patchwork of colour and tone which bring the scene to life. Before its time, his technique here is indicative of an approach to painting that would define much Modern British art to come. However, his views of Iona show Cadell for the true Scottish artist that he was, as a west coast idyll of purples, blues and pinks prevail.

His paintings from Iona perfectly express the spirit of what could be described as the Colourist philosophy of painting, and TJ Honeyman, biographer of the Scottish Colourists and the man who coined the term, considered Cadell's Iona series to be the 'archetypal Colourist pictures'.

This important painting has spent much of the past century, hanging in the same private home in Edinburgh. We believe that this auction will be the first time it has appeared on the open market.