Samuel John Peploe RSA

(British, 1871-1935)

Eilean Annraidh from Iona

Footnotes

Provenance
With Alex. Reid & Lefevre, Ltd., London.
Private collection, UK.
Private collection, UK (gifted from the above in 1996); thence by descent.

The island of Iona was a hugely significant location within Peploe's painting life, although he was nearly fifty years old when he first visited in 1920. He returned nearly every summer until his death in 1935, often accompanied by his friend and fellow artist, Cadell. The island, with its profound spiritual significance and stunning beauty, combined with its ever-changing light and weather, infused the landscape with an energy that the artists were eager to capture in their paintings. The sand, sea, rocks, and distant coastlines of Iona and its surrounding islands provided a limitless source of inspiration, and Peploe clearly took great joy in bringing this vibrant environment to life in his work.

"It is the same modernist viewpoint and sense of wonder which took Cezanne back a hundred times to Mt St Victoire and let the north end of the tiny Island of Iona or freshly cut roses provide endless subject matter for Peploe."
(Guy Peploe, S.J. Peploe, London, 2012, p. 26)

The present work depicts a view from the North End, with the small island of Eilean Annraidh and its stretch of beach visible in the upper left of the composition. In the foreground, Peploe has emphasized a gentle, rolling rocky formation which tumbles across the canvas. This is captured with spontaneous brushstrokes and small patches of colour. In the distance, the Isle of Mull can be seen, along with the entrance to Loch Na Kiel on the right.

In Peploe's still lifes, his palette is often dominated by bursts of vibrant, bold colour, and they reflect his strong desire to get as close as he could to a sense of balance and compositional perfection. In contrast to this, his Iona views are refreshingly spontaneous in their composition, and instead feel as though they are designed to capture a fleeting moment in time. And unlike the striking explosions of colour in his still lifes, the Iona paintings highlight his skill in working with a cooler palette of blues and greens, complemented by soft pinks and calm sandy tones. The present work highlights all of these qualities that have become synonymous with his Iona views.

Peploe's interest in capturing a sense of the moment with his landscapes, rather than a focus on the topography, is demonstrated in the words of his friend and fellow Colourist JD Fergusson:

"He worked all the time from nature but never imitated it... I don't think he wanted to have struggle on the canvas; he wanted to be sure of a thing and do it. That gave his painting something."
(G. Peploe, S.J. Peploe, p. 51)