Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell R.S.A., R.S.W.

G.W. Service collection;
Portland Gallery, London;
Bought by the present owner in 1994

The panel appears to be sound and the work in very good overall condition. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be no signs of retouching. Held under glass in a gilt plaster frame; unexamined out of frame.
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The small island of Iona lies close to Mull on the west coast of Scotland. The island boasted an inexhaustible supply of subject matter for the artist:  innumerable coastal vistas across the ocean to the west, towards Mull and surrounding islands to the north and east; rocky dunes and machair; beaches with their distinctive rocky outcrops and pure white sands; clear shallow waters of turquoise and emerald green. From every direction a new artistic challenge  presented itself close by, and from each of these perspectives, a hundred different pictures could be produced  by the changing effects of light, weather and season on the landscape. First visited by Francis Cadell in 1912, Iona became a rich source of material for the artist and his friend Samuel John Peploe. It is no wonder that both artists returned year after year on summer painting excursions to the island.

Dating from the 1920s and probably painted from the north end beach, Cadell has created in his picture a complex composition. He features alternating bands of rock in the foreground, white sands, with shallow waves and isolated rocks on the shore; beyond are deeper tones of blue and green water with Eilean Annraidh stretching the full width of the painting behind; further back are deep blue waters and finally, in the distance,  the hazy outline of Mull beyond. Each stratum of the picture offers different surfaces and colours, from the sunshine glistening on the water, to jagged, stylised rock formations with the strong highlights and shadows so characteristic of the colourist’s work. The effect is one of an extensive landscape which stretches out miles before the spectator.