Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, R.S.A., R.S.W.

By descent through the artist's family

Aitken Dott & Son, Edinburgh (details untraced);
Stirling, Stirling Fine Art Association, (details untraced)

Cadell first visited the small island of Iona on the west coast of Scotland in 1912 and over the following twenty-five years he returned repeatedly to paint on the dunes and the white sandy shores. Dressed in his trade-mark bright waist-coat, Tam-o-Shanter and kilt, he was a regular feature on the beaches and tourists would gather around him as he painted. Whilst this appealed to his ebullient character, he also enjoyed the quiet solitude of his time there which often stretched to periods of two or three months. The island offered an inexhaustible supply of subjects for the artist. Each day he would find a new vista to paint or return to a favourite spot to capture the ever-changing weather and light which made each picture different.

The present picture probably depicts a view looking south-west across Iona Sound to the mainland. The movement of two red-sailed dinghies adds a dynamism which is rare for Cadell’s views of the island. The broken brushwork and colouring wonderfully captures the foam of the sea animated by strong cross-winds in the glimmering sunlight. The dark architectural rocks rising from the water in the foreground, contrast with the opalescent mauves and turquoise of the sea punctuated by flashes of red sails and yellow seaweed, over which spreads a brooding sky.

On the reverse of this picture is a study of a male nude in the pose of Rodin’s The Thinker. He appears to be sitting on a scaffold or life-guard’s chair and the background likely depicts the red roofs and olive trees of the French Riviera. The model was probably Cadell’s manservant Charles Oliver who travelled with Cadell on his painting expeditions to both Iona and France. He also helped the artist to sell his Ionian views by approaching prospective buyers on the island.