FRANCIS CAMPBELL BOILEAU CADELL, R.S.A., R.S.W. | IONA, COWS ROCK AND THE ROSS OF MULL

Phillips, Edinburgh, 5 May 1995, lot 22;

Duncan R. Miller Fine Arts, London, where purchased by Mr John Michael Dyson and thence by descent

P. Macleod Coupe, Paintings of Iona; Cadell and Peploe, Malvern, 2014, p.115, pl.96

The present work depicts a view from the North End of the Isle of Iona, with the foreground dominated by the north-eastern corner of Cows Rock and looking across the water towards Mull. Located off the west coast of Scotland, Iona’s beautiful landscape, colour and light enchanted and captivated Cadell when he first visited in 1912. It provided him with limitless artistic inspiration, and he returned almost every summer, encouraging fellow Colourist Samuel John Peploe to do the same. The composition is defined by dynamic contrasts in colour; pinkish tones of the Caledonian granite on the Ross of Mull are set against turquoise waters, and black rocks are stark against white sand. The boldness of colour and line reflect the influence of French Post-Impressionism that so defined the artistic direction of the Scottish Colourists.

The local islanders grew fond of Cadell over the many years he painted there. In turn he appreciated their modest, unadorned lifestyle. As Roger Billcliffe writes, ‘its simplicity of life – primitive almost – was obviously a welcome change from the style and pace of life of Edinburgh’ (Roger Billcliffe, The Scottish Colourists – Cadell, Fergusson, Hunter, Peploe, 1989, p.41). Regarded with genuine affection as well as respect for his talents as an artist by the people of Iona, the young boys of the island graced him the nickname ‘Himself’ for his exuberant eccentricity. Yet for all his cheerful friendliness, Cadell also prized the island’s sequestered tranquillity. Above all his Iona views offer the viewer a unique sense of escapism, onto the expanses of white sands and the swatches of azure where no human presence disturbs one’s contemplation of natural beauty.