SAMUEL JOHN PEPLOE RSA
1871 - Edinburgh - 1935
Ref: CD 158
Still life of roses with a green tablecloth
Signed lower right: Peploe
Oil on canvas: 20 x 16 in / 50.8 x 40.6 cm
Frame size: 28 x 24 in /71 x 61 cm
In a Louis XIV style carved and gilded frame
Painted in the late 1920s
Provenance:
Winnie Hyslop
Private collection, gifted from the above, then by descent
Sotheby’s London, 30th September 2009, lot 61;
private collection, UK, acquired from the above
Exhibited:
London, Richard Green, SJ Peploe: Landscapes, Still Lifes, Roses, May 2017, cat. no. 20, illus. in colour
Peploe wrote in 1929, ‘There is so much in mere objects, flowers, leaves, jugs, what not – colours, forms, relation – I can never see mystery coming to an end.’[1] Still lifes, in particular paintings of roses, are perhaps Peploe’s most celebrated works, each one an original exploration of style, composition and technique. In this radiant work, the soft, angular folds of the green tablecloth unbalance the bountiful fruit and flower in the foreground, recalling the still lifes of Cézanne, as well as the structure and forms of the roses and their leaves. The bold, emerald fabric is laid diagonally across a polished wood table whose highly reflective surface, like the transparent vase, reflects light and colour back across the iridescent room.
In his introduction to the Peploe retrospective held by Aiken & Dott in 1947, JW Blyth eloquently writes: ‘Having lived with Peploe’s pictures for many years, we have experienced an ever-growing conviction that he was probably the greatest painter of his generation. As is the case with most great artists, his art passed through a number of phases, and one may have preferences according to one’s individual taste, but the masterpieces of each period are eloquent of his supreme gifts as a colourist and of his amazing skill in the art of picture-making…Naturally, with the passage of years Peploe’s art expressed more and more of his own personality, and in its later phases became unique and unrivalled in its own sphere. Peploe was a great man, and his pictures are the ardent outpourings of a great heart and a great mind. To live with them is a sheer delight.’[2]
[1] Stanley Cursiter, Peploe: An Intimate Memoir of the Artist and his Work, Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd, Edinburgh 1947, p.73.
[2] JW Blyth, Paintings and Drawings by SJ Peploe RSA, exh cat, Aitken Dott & Son, Edinburgh, 1947.
