‘Masterful’ painting by Scottish colourist to go under hammer for first time

A “masterful” painting by Scottish colourist Samuel John Peploe which once hung in his patron’s drawing room is to be auctioned for the first time.

Roses In A Green Jug will go under the hammer in the Scottish art sale at Bonhams, Edinburgh, next month, with an estimate of £250,000-£350,000.

Paintings by fellow Scottish colourist Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell and by the late Jack Vettriano will also feature in the sale on May 21.

Peploe once characterised his career as a search for the perfect still life, and was influenced by his time in Paris from 1910-12 where he studied the work of Post-Impressionist masters.

Major Ion R Harrison, a Scottish shipping magnate, first encountered Peploe’s work at an exhibition in Glasgow in the 1920s and soon became a close friend and patron of the painter and the Scottish colourists.

May Matthews, managing director of Bonhams Scotland, said: “Peploe’s Roses In A Green Jug is a masterful execution of composition and colour, taking inspiration from Paul Cezanne and French Post-Impressionism, while maintaining the artist’s distinctive individual style.

“Peploe’s still lifes were meticulously planned and executed, creating the dialogue between object and space for which he and his fellow colourists were renowned.

“The work has a remarkable provenance, having once hung in the drawing room of Croft House owned by Ion R Harrison, a notable patron of the Scottish colourists.

“We expect significant interest for this rare and exciting work offered at auction for the very first time.”

Roses In A Green Jug can be seen hanging in the background of Cadell’s Portrait Of Mrs Ion R Harrison of 1932.

Six works by Vettriano, who died earlier this year, will also go under the hammer.

They include Pendine Beach (Study), which was painted in 1996, and has an estimate of £20,000-£30,000.

The painting once hung in the late Sir Terence Conran’s Bluebird restaurant in London, after he bought the picture in 1996, Bonhams said.

Spanish Candlestick by the late Anne Redpath will also feature in the auction, with an estimate of £18,000-£25,000.

A selection of landscapes of the island of Iona will also be sold, including Peploe’s paintings of The White Strand, Iona, with an estimate of £70,000-£100,000, and Eilean Annraidh from Iona, which is expected to fetch £50,000-£70,000.

Paintings of Iona by Cadell and John Maclauchlan will also be auctioned.