Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell

The canvas is original. On very close inspection there appear to be two tiny indentations to the paint surface in the lower right corner, although these could well be intrinsic to the work. Otherwise in good condition, clean and ready to hang. Ultraviolet light reveals some minor retouching to the lower edge just left of the signature. There is one further tiny suggestion of cosmetic retouching just upper right of centre. Held in a decorative gold painted frame in fair condition. Under glass and unexamined out of frame.
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Warmed by the sun, blown by the wind I sat
Upon the hill top looking at the sound.
Down in the church beneath, the people sat
On chairs and laughed and frowned.

No Chairs for me when I can lie
And air myself upon the heather
And watch the fat bees buzzing by
And smell the smell of summer weather.

Let them bow down to God unfound
For me the sound that stretches round
For me the flowery scented ground
Upon the hilltop looking at the sound.

No church for me to worship in
Confined by walls of dank dark stone.
For rather can I worship him
When I am out in his fair world.'

Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, One Sunday in Iona, written in the summer of 1913.

Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell first visited Iona in 1913 on a sailing trip with a friend and was immediately captivated by its remote and enchanting beauty. Cadell served in the army during much of WW1 enduring the horrors of the French trenches but during periods of leave he was able to return to Iona on brief painting forays which would have provided a welcome sanctuary for him. During the war years the seclusion and peace of Iona had increased importance as a place of refuge and it was here that he painted some of his most striking landscapes of the white beaches and sculptural rocks. Iona also offered Cadell a different lifestyle to that of Edinburgh and as Roger Billcliffe illustrates "its simplicity of life – primitive almost – was obviously a welcome change from the style and pace of life of Edinburgh."

The view across the Sound from Iona to the island of Mull with Ben More, was one which Cadell rarely painted and was more frequently depicted by Peploe, who began visiting the island from 1920 as Cadell's guest. Both Cadell and Peploe spent many summer months in Iona, often together, and the paintings they produced perfectly express the spirit of the Colourist philosophy of painting, rendering the forms of the rocks and shadows in a dramatic language of colour and form. In the present work the colour of the water is vibrant aquamarine, the light is fresh and life-giving, the rocks are sharp and aggressively guide the viewer's eye to the horizon. These Iona views offer the viewer a unique sense of escapism, onto the expanses of white sands and the swathes of azure and malachite seas where no human presence disturbs one's contemplation of natural beauty. He drew solace and inspiration from the tranquillity of the island and its people but as Billcliffe further indicates, "its great attraction was its light and the rapidly changing colours of sand, sea and sky caused by the wind blowing in the clouds from the Atlantic. The fields, hills, farms and beaches of Iona never failed to offer Cadell some new subject."