Samuel John Peploe, R.S.A. 1871-1935

Glasgow, Alex Reid & Lefevre;
Dr. James Harper, by 1937;
Mrs Harper by 1970;
Private collection

Possibly Glasgow, Institute of Fine Art, 1934, no.405 as Wind;
Glasgow, McLellan Galleries, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by Samuel John Peploe, R.S.A., February 1937, no. 67; 
Paris, Palais of Arts, Fine Art Section of the Empire Exhibition, April- October 1938, no 83 (?);
Scottish Art Council, Three Scottish Contemporaries, 1970, no. 85;
Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, S. J. Peploe: A Memorial Exhibition, June-September 1985, no. 129

'In the summer of 1933 the Peploes went to stay in Calvine in Perthshire at the invitation of Louie Sinclair and, after his usual scouting inspection of the area, Peploe found several subjects he could paint: a few remnants of the Caledonian forest, a river with deep pools and banks of white shingle and a road of pale pinkish yellow meandering through the trees.' (Guy Peploe, S. J. Peploe 1871-1935, 2000, p.84) 

Peploe painted a remarkable group of landscapes in his maturity which reflect a clear influence from the work of Cezanne. In these paintings, trees are often prominent as Peploe investigated the rhythms of the vertical tree-trunks and the shimmering movement of the leaves in the summer light. The first of these arboreal studies were made in Dumfriesshire in late spring and early summer of 1926, whilst Peploe was staying at the Commercial Inn. The summer of 1926 proved to be disappointingly unfruitful for Peploe and he only produced a small number of paintings, despite his desire to paint more. Trees at New Abbey (sold Sotheby's, Gleneagles, 30 August 2006, lot 131) and New Abbey, Dumfriesshire also known as Summer (Hunterian Art Gallery) are the only major landscapes of that year. However, they mark a pivotal point in his career as his paint technique for landscape painting became broader and more expressive. 'The first of the Scottish landscapes painted at Kirkcudbright and New Abbey had broken new ground and had already indicated that his preoccupation with another line of approach to the problems of painting had provided him with a fresh way of seeing his native country. It needed only conditions of the right kind and a locality suited to his purpose to release a wide and immediate development of his art.' (Stanley Cursiter, Peploe, An Intimate Memoir of an Artist and of his Work, 1947, pp. 51-52)  

Throughout the 1920s Peploe returned to the subject of the forested landscape in a series of studies of trees painted at Antibes in the south of France and by the early 1930s he had produced a series of striking symphonies of green, white and pale blue. The influence of Cezanne is very evident in the refracted light shimmering upon the leaves and casting shadows across the trunks and boughs of the trees. The paint is applied with impasto and with rapidly interwoven patches of colour which contrasts with the angularity of Peploe's views in Iona and Cassis painted around the same time.

The present picture was painted in 1933 and demonstrates Peploe's mastery of composition. The shape of the trees, their shadows and the meandering stream lead the eye of the spectator through the composition to the distance beyond. Whilst the composition in a contemporary painting entitled simply River (Aberdeen Art Gallery) is constrained and enclosed by the central focus of the water, the present picture suggests the continuation of the unseen landscape beyond the confines of the picture.

Until his visit in 1933 Peploe had not considered Calvine to be a particularly picturesque place to paint, but he  '... he quite unexpectedly found subjects which attracted him... he was excited and interested and arranged to return later in the autumn with the object of making himself more familiar with the district. While on holiday he regained all his normal vivacity and finding himself in completely congenial company his conversation had all its old whimsicality.' (ibid Cursiter, p.79) Even following his visit later in the autumn of 1933 Peploe felt that there were more subjects in the Perthshire landscape worthy of painting and in 1934 he returned to Calvine. However he was distraught to find that many of the trees had been felled and the little lane twisting into the forest had been covered by an expanse of black tar macadam; 'He saw subject after subject, that he had visualized on his former visit, ruined by this black blight - it made him physically sick to look at it.' (ibid Cursiter, p.86)