Portrait of a Gallery - The Scottish Gallery

The Scottish ColouristsToday, for many, Peploe, Fergusson, Hunterand Cadell, known as The Colourists, representthe greatest achievements in Scottish painting.Their work can be properly seen in a Europeancontext and they were the first Scottishpainters to see themselves as modern.Today a tradition of belle peinture persistsin Scottish painting, some of it withoutthe rigour and ambition still so powerfullyapparent in the best work of the Colourists.Perhaps more importantly their example:dedicated, single-minded and outwith theestablishment, helped succeeding generationsmake their way in a new atomized art world,full of possibility. The Scottish Gallery washome to the ideas, exhibitions and the livesof The Scottish Colourists. So important arethey to our business that we have created adedicated area within our website in which tohouse their work.SJ Peploe had several exhibitions in 1912,but not in Edinburgh. Peploe seemed to PeterDott a lost cause, his new work was tooradical for the dealer to accept and his oneman show was cancelled. In a letter fromMargaret Peploe to Stanley Cursiter shewrote: ‘Mr Dott was still somewhat concernedabout Sam’s “changes”. He was afraid aboutthe influence life in Paris, “French Art”, mighthave on him and on his art. He wrote me avery kind letter, full of advice: my husbandwas an Artist, one of the few: “There was aresponsibility, a duty,” he made me feelboth very keenly. Poor Mr Dott. I’m afraidthere was another shock coming to him.’However, the shock mustn’t have been toogreat for the gallery as Peploe went on tohave successful shows with us throughoutthe 20s and early 30s ending with a Memorialshow in 1936.The Scottish Gallery is going to bringtogether many of these rejected ‘modern’paintings for the first time in a specialcentenary exhibition in 2012.George Leslie Hunter (1879-1931)The Seine and the Pont Neuf c.1925 oil on board 37.5 x 45 cmsThe Pont Neuf is a misnomer since it is the oldest bridge in Paris. It spans the western end of the Île de laCité and Hunter depicts its most famous aspect looking upstream towards the left bank, law courts anddistant spires. This brilliant oil painting similar to Marseilles illustrated in Honeyman’s Introducing LeslieHunter has a thick impasto built up into an uneven texture across which he can pull pigment to createeffects in the sky and water. His palette is bright: acid greens, yellow and cool blues, the architecture givenstructure with decisive drawing with his brush in black.12 13