Portrait of a Gallery - The Scottish Gallery

FCB Cadell RSA, RSW (1883-1937)
Still Life, Blue and White c.1912 signed lower left and inscribed with title verso oil on board 37 x 45 cms
Provenance
Duncan R Miller; Private Collection, Connecticut
Cadell’s early work in oil is very different in character from the early period Peploe and Fergusson. The two
senior painters who worked together and shared their ideas and to some extent, used a rich, creamy vehicle
for their pigment which owed more to 17th Century Dutch painting and early Manet than to Impressionism.
Cadell’s work before 1914 is very dashing, freely painted and favours a palette dominated by white but
using yellow, orange and blues in high key.
In our picture, the composition is lit from the left or rather suffused in an afternoon light, making the
shadows half-tones and the highlights on the blue and white china gleam softly. A framed silhouette hangs
on the wall and a half-peeled lemon completes the colour scheme.
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