Celebration of Peploe's prodigious palette
Mary Gladstone visits Kirkcudbright Galleries
AS A REGIONAL art centre in South West Scotland, Kirkcudbright Galleries punch well above their weight. From its beginning, in June 2018, this architect-designed venue in Kirkcudbright created a stir when, along with a display of the story of the town's art heritage was the presence of Edwin Landseer's totemic 'The Monarch of the Glen'.
Drawing 11,000 visitors in one month, the painting of this majestic stag established the new venue's striking profile. Since then, Kirkcudbright Galleries have exhibited the work of a variety of artists from Gerald Scarfe (political cartoonist and illustrator), Raymond Briggs, creator of 'The Snowman', the Japanese artist, Hiroshige with his celebrated views of Mt. Fuji and The Galloway Hoard (a stash of gold, silver and glass from the Viking period), discovered not far from the town itself.
Recently, the Galleries have shown Scottish artists' work from the past, like the portraits of the early 19th century Edinburgh painter, Henry Raeburn (2024) and the landscapes of William Gillies, as part of a touring Royal Scottish Academy exhibition.
This summer, Kirkcudbright Galleries, from June 6 to October 4, will present 'Colour: The Palette of S. J. Peploe', an exhibition of one of Scotland's leading colourists, Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935).
In 1924, Walter Sickert described Peploe's early work as carrying 'a certain kind of delicious skill to a pitch of virtuosity.' This intensity in the artist's response to place and form and his meticulous observation can be seen this summer in his 60 paintings on show at Kirkcudbright.
Peploe's pleasure in colour and his genius in employing it, will be appreciated in the South West, where Galloway summers can be luminous with natural colour. Scotland's natural world is brilliantly reflected in Peploe's interpretation of colour. The singular shade of a bluebell wood, the startling yellow of a whin or gorse bush, the intensity of a heather-covered hillside or the fierce orange of rowan berries might have been some of the many natural features he drew inspiration from.
Renowned not only as a landscape painter, Peploe's still life studies are hugely popular and his portraits are memorable. His unique touch in all three of these areas will be drawn together in this exhibition.
Some paintings come from public collections, such as 'Flowers and Fruit', painted around the outbreak of WW1, and part of a series of experimental still lifes. It is lent by The National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.
'Kirkcudbright Street Corner' painted in 1917, is the property of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum and 'Palm Trees, Antibes' (1928) is on loan from Fife's Kirkcaldy Galleries.
Other works come from private collections and some haven't been seen since the artist's memorial exhibition in 1936 at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh.
There is also rare material from the family archive curated by the artist's grandson, Guy Peploe. Since his death in 1935, Peploe has been well-represented in solo exhibitions. Four shows at the Scottish gallery have featured his work, including one in 2021, marking the 150th anniversary of his birth.
During his lifetime, he was represented in Paris (1924) and in London (1925). Peploe features regularly in group shows, particularly in retrospectives of the Scottish Colourists, like 'A Century of Scottish Colourists' (2025) as the artist is seen as a leading figure of the movement.
Consisting of John Duncan Fergusson, Leslie Hunter, Francis Cadell and Samuel John Peploe, the group emerged during the early 20th century and are renowned for bringing the striking colours of the French Fauvist movement to the UK, when they blended their artistic training in France with Scottish painting traditions. With their intense colours and fluent brush-strokes, they are often compared to the French Impressionists.
Born in Edinburgh's New Town, Peploe was the son of a bank manager. On leaving school at 14, he was apprenticed to an Edinburgh lawyer's firm, but around 1889 he began to study art. From 1893-1894 he studied at the Royal Scottish Academy's Life Class, then in Paris. From 1901, he made trips to northern France and the Hebrides with J. D. Fergusson.
He was the first Scottish Colourist to have a solo show in Edinburgh in 1903. In 1910 the artist married and moved to Paris where he concentrated on still life and landscape painting and made friends with artists E. A Taylor and Jessie M. King. In December 1915, he had his second one-man exhibition, this time in Glasgow. Though never overly abstract, Peploe's art is characterized by strong colour, verve and careful execution. He was influenced by Matisse, Van Gogh and de Segonzac.
S. J. Peploe had a strong connection with Kirkcudbright, and Southwest Scotland was a productive environment for him, especially when the Taylors moved back from Paris in 1914 and invited him to stay. He visited in 1917 and painted near Dalbeattie. In 1926, he stayed in New Abbey and again in 1928, when he painted Sweetheart Abbey. His last visit was in 1931.
His grandson, Guy Peploe, claims that the robust architecture of Kirkcudbright's Tolbooth, castle, early 19th century streets of town houses and harbour were an inspiration to him. Peploe delighted in Jessie M. King's cooking, was reserved towards some local artists and unimpressed with Dorothy L. Sayers' newly (then) published detective novel 'Five Red Herrings' "What a silly, dull book, full of padding," he commented.
To celebrate this, possibly, once-in-a-generation exhibition of S. J. Peploe, his grandson, Guy Peploe, art historian, curator and former managing director of the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, will give a talk at Kirkcudbright Galleries about his grandfather on Thursday August 20 from 2.30 – 3.30pm.
'Colour: The Palette of S. J. Peploe' Kirkcudbright Gakkeries June 6 - October 4
