Samuel John Peploe, R.S.A.

Winnie Hyslop by whom gifted to a private collector and thence by descent until 2009;
Sotheby's, London, 30 September 2009, lot 61 where purchased by the present owners

London, Duncan Miller Fine Arts, The Scottish Colourists, 1987;
London, Richard Green, S.J. Peploe - Landscapes, Still Life, Roses, 2017, no.11

The canvas does not appear to have been lined. There are areas of very faint craquelure notably to the centre and upper portions of the canvas, however, these are only visible upon close inspection. Otherwise the work appears to be in good overall condition, and is clean and ready to hang. UV light inspection reveals no evidence of any retouching or restoration. Held in a decorative gilded frame. Please note that the work is framed under glass.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

More than any other Colourist, Samuel John Peploe was influenced by the radical work of the Cubists and Fauves and he developed a way of a painting closely akin to that of Cezanne with his bold colour and delineated tone. Peploe's works produced in the early 1920s investigated the possibilities of artistic expression in terms of pure colour and flattened pictorial space. His work is not concerned with clever representations of distance or of light. There is no meaning to be read into the flower symbolism of his pictures and there is no deep-rooted psychological mystery to his work. His still life paintings portray the simple but striking beautiful and modern qualities of colour and perspective in their purest form. In the introduction to Peploe's memorial exhibition catalogue, held in 1937 at the McLellan Galleries, E.A. Taylor, a fellow artist and friend observed that 'even be Peploe's motif a single rose, he gave to it by his significant design and colour a more enduring bloom than any yet produced by the superficial formula of academic cosmetics.'

Peploe regarded all his still life paintings as highly serious works, requiring a considered intellectual effort allied to a delicate touch and a sure sense of colour and pattern. Peploe's contribution to the genre of still life painting is probably without equal in British art in the twentieth century. Walter Sickert, who had been invited by Alexander Reid to write an introduction to the catalogue of the 1925 exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London, had a high opinion of these new paintings. He commented that 'in his earlier work Mr. Peploe had carried on a certain kind of delicious skill to a pitch of virtuosity that might have led to mere repetition, and his present orientation has certainly been a kind of rebirth. He has transferred his unit of attention from attenuated and exquisite gradations of tone to no less skillfully related colour. And by relating all his lines with frankness to 180 degrees of two right angles, he is able to capture and digest a wider field of vision than before. And time, as the poet sings, is an important element in the gathering of roses. And it is probably for this reason that, obviously beautiful as was Mr Peploe's earlier quality, his present one will establish itself as the more beautiful of the two.'

Still Life of Roses with a Green Tablecloth was painted in the 1920s at the height of the artist's career and this wonderful composition is among the most sophisticated and beautiful of his works of this type. The soft tones and subtle square brush strokes produce the superbly balanced and harmonious flavour which is so typical of his finest work of this period. Throughout his career Peploe strove to paint the perfect still life and he came closest to this ideal in the mid 1920s. Flower paintings had always been his first love and his first serious achievements had come when he applied himself to this subject matter and his meticulous temperament made him ideally suited to the task. His calm reasoning and thoughtful manner enabled him to make a careful analysis of the problems which face the still life painter and he set about resolving them in a series of works which include many of his most satisfying paintings.