Samuel John Peploe RSA

(British, 1871-1935)

Still Life with Geranium 55 x 46.3 cm. (21 5/8 x 18 1/4 in.)

Footnotes

Provenance
Sale; Sotheby's, Glasgow, 9 February 1988, Lot 289
With Jonathan Clark Ltd., London
Private collection, Australia
Amnesty International

The proceeds of sale of this work will support the work of Amnesty International, a global movement of more than 10 million people in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end abuses of human rights.

'The main impression gathered from [Peploe's] paintings is of colour, intense colour, and colour in its most colourful aspect. One is conscious of material selected for inclusion in still-life groups because of its colourful effect; reds, blues, and yellows are unmistakably red, blue and yellow; the neutrals are black and white' (S. Cursiter, Peploe: An intimate memoir of an artist and his work, Thomas Nelson, London, 1947, p. 43) .

During his time living in Paris in the early 1910's, Peploe had been exposed to the radical artistic developments in art. He witnessed the possibilities of composition and colour through work produced by the Fauves and Cubists. Peploe developed his own use of colour; bold, primary tones, yet he encased these with distinctive black outlines. His work between 1910-20 is not concerned with over-complicated perspective or symbolism, but instead presenting the subject in its purest unfettered form.
This double-sided canvas is an important and rare example of Peploe's unique and distinctive style as he broke away from tradition, occupying a position at the forefront of Modernism in Britain.