Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell 1883-1937

Although Cadell regularly visited Iona from 1912 onwards, his first trip to the nearby island of Mull was not until 1927 when he stopped at Auchnacraig on his way to Iona. He painted a number of small panels on this visit and subsequent trips, including the identicaly sized Loch Dun, Mull (Sotheby's, Gleneagles, 31 August 2005, lot 1079), Auchnacraig, Isle of Mull (Lyon and Turnbull, 11 December 2003, lot 82) and Auchnacraig (Sotheby's, Gleneagle's, 28 August 2002, lot 1081).  

Cadell met George Service during the artist's first visit to Iona in the summer of 1912 and he soon became his foremost patron with a particular fondness for Cadell's views of the western isles. Service's summer house at Cove in Dumbartonshire and his Glasgow house both had paintings by Cadell in every room. The importance of Service's patronage of Cadell is demostrated by the fact that in 1921 he purchased fourteen pictures by Cadell and a year later bought another twelve pictures. He continued to buy paintings from Cadell for at least six years.