Their Circle

The artists now known as the Scottish Colourists were not a fixed group during their lifetime. They certainly knew each other; Peploe was close to both Fergusson and Cadell but they did not always work or exhibit together. There were other contemporary artists in France and Scotland with whom they worked and who were part of the exchange of ideas and influence. Many of these artists were also represented by Alexander Reid and collected by patrons of the Scottish Colourists.

 

 

Stanley Cursiter (1887-1976)

As well as being a talented painter, Cursiter was an important critic and curator. He helped to bring Futurism and Post-Impressionism to Scotland and to promote his fellow Scottish painters, writing books such as ‘Scottish Art at the Close of the Nineteenth Century’ and a biography of Peploe. In 1949 he helped to organise an exhibition of contemporary Scottish painting which included paintings by the Scottish Colourists, Maclauchlan Milne, Gillies and Redpath. The exhibition travelled in the USA and Canada.

 

Anne Estelle Rice (1877-1959)

In 1905 the American born Rice went to Paris to illustrate the latest fashions for Philadelphia’s North American magazine. In the summer of 1907 she met Fergusson who encouraged her to become a painter. Exposed in Paris to Post-Impressionism and Fauvism, she adopted a vivid palette and used red or blue contouring lines. In 1910 she was in Royan with Peploe and Fergusson and later they travelled to Cassis. She worked on illustrations for the British periodical Rhythm (edited by Fergusson) and exhibited with Fergusson at the Stafford Gallery’s exhibition ‘The Rhythm Group’ in 1912. Rice also designed theatre sets and costumes.

 

 

Margaret Morris (1891-1980)

A dancer, Margaret Morris met Fergusson in Paris in 1913. Morris and Fergusson had a profound influence on each other, his work became more focused on the female form and she also took up painting. Morris later wrote: “I first realised the absolute necessity of relating movement with form and colour when studying painting of the modern movement in Paris in 1913. From that time I incorporated it as one of the main studies in my school. In this connection I am deeply indebted to J D Ferguson, the painter, who for years has taught the painting design and sculpture in my school and who first made me realise the possibilities of theatrical work considered from the visual point of view, and the value of the study of form and colour as a means of education.”

 

 

John Maclauchlan Milne (1885-1957)

Maclauchlan Milne emigrated to Canada in 1903 but had returned to Scotland by 1907. After the war he took a studio at the Rue des Quatre-Vents in Paris before moving on the the village of Lavardin near Langeron and Tours on the river Loir. Following in the footsepts of the Scottish Colourists, Milne moved south in around 1924, making St. Tropez his base for the remainder of the decade. Like Peploe, Milne was attracted the Iona, Mull and the West Coast. He exhibited alongside the Colourists during the late 1920s and 1930s before moving to Arran at the outbreak of the Second World War.