Landscape, Cassis, France (c.1924), Aberdeen Art Gallery.
Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 53.5 cms.
Image courtesy of Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Collection www.aagm.co.uk
Still Life with Pink Roses and Fruit.
Oil on canvas, 46 x 41 cms.
In the immediate post-War period Peploe combined traditional composition with an exploration of colour. After discovering the colourful work of Henri Matisse during his visits to France, he developed a rich palette of vibrant colours.
From 1914 onwards, Peploe had endeavoured to paint the perfect still life and he applied himself to his cause with great purpose, concentrating on depicting a few simple elements: Chinese vases, a black fan, roses or tulips would be set against a backdrop of brightly coloured fabrics bought from Whytock and Reid, the renowned Edinburgh decorators and furnishers.
Image courtesy of Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh
Roses and Still Life (c.1925) University of Dundee Fine Art Collections. Oil on canvas, 65 x 50 cms.
Image courtesy of www.dundee.ac.uk/museum
Tulips in a Pottery Vase (c.1912), Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow.
Oil on canvas 45.5 x 40.5 cms.
This painting shows the volte face that occurred in Peploe’s style in the second decade of the twentieth century. Around 1912 his paintings become marked by an acidic, almost garish palate. Fergusson attributes Peploe’s increasing interest in bright colours and decorative compositions to his exposure to contemporary art in Paris: ‘Peploe and I went everywhere together. I took him to see Picasso and he was very much impressed. We went to the Salone d’Automne where we met Bourdelle, Friesz, Pascin and others. He’s started to send to the Salon d’Automne. I was very happy, for I felt that at last he was in a suitable milieu, something more sympathetic than the RSA. He was working hard, and changed from blacks and greys to colour and design.’*
* J. D. Fergusson, ‘Memories of Peploe’, Scottish Art Review, Vol. 8, No. 3, 1962, pp. 8—12.
Image courtesy of Glasgow Museums www.glasgowlife.org.uk