Melon, Grapes and Apples was included in one of Samuel John Peploe’s first one-man exhibitions in 1903, making it one of his earliest explorations of a subject which continued to fascinate him throughout his oeuvre. The 1903 show was held at Aitken Dott & Son, now The Scottish Gallery, and consisted of 12 paintings which sold, of which, the present work was in fact bought by Peploe’s friend and fellow Colourist John Duncan Fergusson, for £15.
‘There is so much in mere objects, flowers, leaves, jugs, what not – coming to an end’
Peploe is most renowned for his still lifes, of which, the present work is a fine example. Peploe was not loyal to nature, but to his art, and the scene of the fruit is set out as if on a stage: it is dramatically lit, which contrasts against the pitch-black backdrop, and the knife and tablecloth almost look like an after-thought, whereas its positioning was probably incredibly deliberate. This scene would have been set up in his flat-cum-studio, most likely at 7 Devon Place, Edinburgh, where he lived from 1900-1905, a smaller and darker-lit apartment than his later more airy and lighter ones, and this was a crucial period when Peploe really began to accrue his reputation in Scotland.
Peploe was fascinated by the French painter Edouard Manet, who was an early influence when he had travelled and lived in Paris as a student at the Académie Julian. Part of the quartet known as the Scottish Colourists, Peploe and his contemporaries had an affinity with France and with French painting, having a deep understanding and appreciation of the Impressionists and Modern French painters, much before the British. One key element of inspiration drawn from artists such as Cézanne and Matisse was colour.
“These still lifes were executed following Manet’s technique, Peploe first painting in light areas then adding darks and half-tones while the paint remained wet’
The Colourists, and some British contemporaries such as William Nicholson, at the time were looking to the Dutch Old Masters, and particularly captivating was the effect of the dramatic black background. This was considered rather unconventional at the time – the Royal Scottish Academy rejected his work many times - yet Peploe was fixed on something beyond institutional acceptance, and was not guided by conventional norms of the time.
“In his painting and in everything he did he tried to make things adequate; his satisfaction was a severe synthesis; to find, by persistent trial, the essentials’
The influence of the French painters on Peploe was lifelong, and he first moved to Paris joining Fergusson in 1910. Melon, Grapes and Apples represents Peploe's importance for the fundamentals of painting, and therefore in theory it should be incredibly simple, but in fact, from Peploe’s precision and intuitive sense of his subject and medium, it conveys itself as a vision of an artist mastering his art. The present work is formerly from the collection of Major Ion R. Harrison, whose collection was sold in part at Sotheby's in 2018, an important market moment for the Scottish Colourists.