Leo Webster
Senior Specialist
Lot 63*
Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell RSA RSW(British, 1883-1937)May Easter
21 May 2025, 12:00 BST
EdinburghSold for £51,200 inc. premium
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Jodie Nayler
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Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell RSA RSW (British, 1883-1937)
May Easter
signed 'FCB Cadell' (upper right)
oil on canvas
77 x 63.5cm (30 5/16 x 25in).
signed 'FCB Cadell' (upper right)
oil on canvas
77 x 63.5cm (30 5/16 x 25in).
Footnotes
Provenance
Sale, Sotheby's, London, 24 April 1979, lot 556.
Sale, Sotheby's, Edinburgh, 29 August 2007, lot 128.
Private collection, North America.
Cadell's paintings of female sitters are well-recognised and regarded within his oeuvre, however, aside from specific portrait commissions, he tended to use these subjects more as motifs within a decorative setting. They are often highly stylised and stylish, clad in the latest fashions or themed costume, but their features can be indistinct or generic. When the present work was sold by Sotheby's in 1979, it was identified as a portrait of a sitter named Miss May Easter, which was presumably based upon evidence now lost. Although it is possible that this was a commissioned portrait, it is more likely that May Easter was a model.
It was probably painted in the early 1920s, when Cadell produced some of his most striking figurative work in a bold and monumental style. The present portrait appears to be the picture propped against the wall in the background of Negro (Pensive) circa 1922 (private collection). It is possible that the same model, with her bright auburn hair appears in A Lady in Black of circa 1926, and Interior: The Orange Blind circa 1927 (Kelvingrove Art Gallery).
Therefore, this painting is a beautifully composed and fascinating depiction of a model who features in several important works of the 1920s and it perhaps sheds light on the identity of this sitter. Painted in Cadell's highly distinctive colour palette and style, this image epitomises the glamour and modernity of his work of the early 1920s.