Miss Don Wauchope's Robe (c.1915), Private Collection.
Oil on canvas, 112 x 86.5cms.
'Miss Don Wauchope's Robe' c.1915, was created during a particularly satisfying and productive period of Cadell's career. Upon returning from a formative trip to Venice in 1910, his work was instilled with a new brilliance of light and easy broadness of brushstroke. He had consolidated a position for himself within Edinburgh society as a colourful, witty and entertaining host; conducting 'artistic' evenings from his studio at 130 Great George Street which gained him the loyal support of patrons, won over by both the art and the man. He was a founding member of the Society of Eight, a group of Scottish artists who, from 1912, regularly organised their own exhibitions out with the normal routes of thegallery world. It boasted an an array of talented and successful members including Patrick Adam and Sir John Lavery. These factors combined to provide a
heightened confidence in Cadell's work that is abundantly visible to the viewer. Cadell was painting like a man in his element and it was reflected in commercial and critical success; to his extreme pleasure he had several works accepted for exhibition in the Royal Scottish Academy during this time.
One of his oeuvre's quintessential themes - the elegant studio interior - began to sell well, serving to fund his lifestyle which was as luxurious as money would allow. He also formed a highly productive working relationship with Miss Don Wauchope, a beautiful, elegant and thoroughly modern society lady who would sit for him regularly over the next fifteen years. It is her “brilliantly coloured robe”[1] that artlessly lies in a louche crumple of sumptuous material in the painting represented here. As gallerist Tom Hewlett quips when discussing the work in his 1988 biography of Cadell, “she obviously shared Bunty's taste for fine clothes”[2]. The pair, it seems, were kindred spirits. A favourite recurring prop of Cadell's can also be observed on the side table in the form of an abstractedly rendered lapis blue porcelain buffalo. The same ornament can often be spotted in his interiors during this decade; on the mantlepeice in the stunning large-scale work 'The White Room' and in a still life study arranged with a mirror and buddah. The work as a whole is devised of masterful, extremely clever flashes of brushwork. The laquered floor, the creamy upholstrey, the blue-ish shadows cast against the wall are all artfully shaped with extremely dexterous, quick, adroit strokes.
After the War Cadell's style underwent a marked change. Leaving behind the delicate whites, lilacs, pinks and expressive brushwork of his Impressionistic style he began to introduce the Fauve influenced flattened planes of vibrant colour which characterise his famous still lifes. When considering his career retrospectively, these stunning societal interiors steeped in the influence of Whistler, Lavery and Sargent read as “a swansong of the innocent and idealistic Edwardian era”[3]. They are also, as with so much of his work, a reflection of the personality of the man himself: quick-witted, spirited, distinctive, ebullient and - of course - a little decadent.
Image and note courtesy of Lyon and Turnbull, Edinburgh
Girl in Pink and White (1911), Perth and Kinross Council.
Oil on canvas, 87.5 x 71 cms.
This single figure study is particularly reminiscent of Whistler’s portraits of women, such as Lady Meux, Harmony and Pink and Grey (c. 1916). As the title suggests, this work was conceived of as much as a harmonious study of colour as a portrait, in line with the artist’s adherence to ‘art for art’s sake’ principles. Cadell wrote of Whistler: ‘He was a marvellous painter, the most exquisite of the ‘moderns.’’* Such works were likely to have found a ready market with collectors for their decorative qualities.
*Cadell quoted in T. J. Honeyman, Three Scottish Colourists, London 1950 p. 83
Afternoon (1913), Private Collection.
Oil on canvas, 102 x 127 cms.
Literature: Hewlett, Tom, 'F.C.B. Cadell', Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2011, plate 171
Long, Philip, 'The Scottish Colourists, 1900-1930', National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2000, plate 57
Scenes of elegant interiors peopled with nonchalant and fashionable women are numerous in Cadell’s output. Suggestive of the society portraiture of artists such as like John Singer Sargent, such paintings betray the artist’s interest in the qualities of harmonious colour and diffuse light in a way explored extensively by Whistler.
The Artist’s Drawing Room (1912), Private Collection.
Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76 cms.
Cadell acquired his stylish studio in George Street, Edinburgh, in 1909. Among Cadell’s key interests were elegant interior scenes, a medium through which he could express his taste for fine objects. Scenes such as this are redolent of J. M. W. Turner’s impressionistic interior scenes executed at Petworth House in the 1820s. Vibrant colours are counterpointed against a pale white and mauve colour scheme and polished black floor, recalling the palette and general effect of similar scenes by J. M. Whistler and Sir John Lavery.
Miss Don Wauchope's Robe (c.1915), Private Collection.
Oil on canvas, 112 x 86.5cms.
'Miss Don Wauchope's Robe' c.1915, was created during a particularly satisfying and productive period of Cadell's career. Upon returning from a formative trip to Venice in 1910, his work was instilled with a new brilliance of light and easy broadness of brushstroke. He had consolidated a position for himself within Edinburgh society as a colourful, witty and entertaining host; conducting 'artistic' evenings from his studio at 130 Great George Street which gained him the loyal support of patrons, won over by both the art and the man. He was a founding member of the Society of Eight, a group of Scottish artists who, from 1912, regularly organised their own exhibitions out with the normal routes of thegallery world. It boasted an an array of talented and successful members including Patrick Adam and Sir John Lavery. These factors combined to provide a
heightened confidence in Cadell's work that is abundantly visible to the viewer. Cadell was painting like a man in his element and it was reflected in commercial and critical success; to his extreme pleasure he had several works accepted for exhibition in the Royal Scottish Academy during this time.
One of his oeuvre's quintessential themes - the elegant studio interior - began to sell well, serving to fund his lifestyle which was as luxurious as money would allow. He also formed a highly productive working relationship with Miss Don Wauchope, a beautiful, elegant and thoroughly modern society lady who would sit for him regularly over the next fifteen years. It is her “brilliantly coloured robe”[1] that artlessly lies in a louche crumple of sumptuous material in the painting represented here. As gallerist Tom Hewlett quips when discussing the work in his 1988 biography of Cadell, “she obviously shared Bunty's taste for fine clothes”[2]. The pair, it seems, were kindred spirits. A favourite recurring prop of Cadell's can also be observed on the side table in the form of an abstractedly rendered lapis blue porcelain buffalo. The same ornament can often be spotted in his interiors during this decade; on the mantlepeice in the stunning large-scale work 'The White Room' and in a still life study arranged with a mirror and buddah. The work as a whole is devised of masterful, extremely clever flashes of brushwork. The laquered floor, the creamy upholstrey, the blue-ish shadows cast against the wall are all artfully shaped with extremely dexterous, quick, adroit strokes.
After the War Cadell's style underwent a marked change. Leaving behind the delicate whites, lilacs, pinks and expressive brushwork of his Impressionistic style he began to introduce the Fauve influenced flattened planes of vibrant colour which characterise his famous still lifes. When considering his career retrospectively, these stunning societal interiors steeped in the influence of Whistler, Lavery and Sargent read as “a swansong of the innocent and idealistic Edwardian era”[3]. They are also, as with so much of his work, a reflection of the personality of the man himself: quick-witted, spirited, distinctive, ebullient and - of course - a little decadent.
Image and note courtesy of Lyon and Turnbull, Edinburgh
Girl in Pink and White (1911), Perth and Kinross Council.
Oil on canvas, 87.5 x 71 cms.
This single figure study is particularly reminiscent of Whistler’s portraits of women, such as Lady Meux, Harmony and Pink and Grey (c. 1916). As the title suggests, this work was conceived of as much as a harmonious study of colour as a portrait, in line with the artist’s adherence to ‘art for art’s sake’ principles. Cadell wrote of Whistler: ‘He was a marvellous painter, the most exquisite of the ‘moderns.’’* Such works were likely to have found a ready market with collectors for their decorative qualities.
*Cadell quoted in T. J. Honeyman, Three Scottish Colourists, London 1950 p. 83
Afternoon (1913), Private Collection.
Oil on canvas, 102 x 127 cms.
Literature: Hewlett, Tom, 'F.C.B. Cadell', Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2011, plate 171
Long, Philip, 'The Scottish Colourists, 1900-1930', National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2000, plate 57
Scenes of elegant interiors peopled with nonchalant and fashionable women are numerous in Cadell’s output. Suggestive of the society portraiture of artists such as like John Singer Sargent, such paintings betray the artist’s interest in the qualities of harmonious colour and diffuse light in a way explored extensively by Whistler.
The Artist’s Drawing Room (1912), Private Collection.
Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76 cms.
Cadell acquired his stylish studio in George Street, Edinburgh, in 1909. Among Cadell’s key interests were elegant interior scenes, a medium through which he could express his taste for fine objects. Scenes such as this are redolent of J. M. W. Turner’s impressionistic interior scenes executed at Petworth House in the 1820s. Vibrant colours are counterpointed against a pale white and mauve colour scheme and polished black floor, recalling the palette and general effect of similar scenes by J. M. Whistler and Sir John Lavery.