The Scottish Art Sale will take place on Wednesday 10 October 2018.

It will be led by The Model – Peggy Macrae, a major work by the Scottish Colourist Master Francis Cadell, estimated at £150,000-200,000.

Danny McIlwraith and Ruth Leslie of Bonhams make sure Peggy Macrae is quite level

Peggy Macrae was an artist’s model much in demand in Edinburgh before World War I. Her striking looks and instinctive feel for presentation – the angle of a hat, the tilt of an eyebrow – were sought after.

Cadell was well known for painting New Town interiors as well as Iona landscapes. He was born in Edinburgh where his father was a wealthy surgeon, and the family lived at 22 Ainslie Place. A pupil at Edinburgh Academy he went to study in Paris, before returning to Edinburgh where he lived for most of his life. e lived at 4 Warriston Crescent and at 30 Regent Terrace. He is buried in Dean Cemetery near the southern boundary wall. He died in 1937.

Ruth Leslie of Bonhams poses with Peggy Macrae

Other highlights available include:

  • Spring, Iona by Francis Cadell, estimate £50,000-70,000.  The painter first visited the island in 1912 and spent many working summers there in the 1920s often accompanied by his friend and fellow Colourist Samuel Peploe.
  • The Soko, Tangiers by Arthur Melville (1855-1904), estimate: £20,000-30,000; and Spanish Street, night by the same artist, estimate: £15,000-20,000. Melville was a frequent visitor to Spain and North Africa in the 1890s and these trips provided inspiration for some of his most vibrant work. Melville was a friend of Cadell’s father and encouraged the young painter to study at the Académie Julian in Paris, as he himself had done at the beginning of his career.

Scottish Art Sale Bonhams, 22 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JX. 

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.