A century-old still life masterpiece by the leading Scottish Colourist Samuel John Peploe could fetch up to £350,000 at auction in Edinburgh this month.
The oil painting “Roses in a Green Jug” was completed around 1925, when Peploe was at the peak of his artistic career, working in a studio in Shandwick Place, Edinburgh.
It was bought by his patron, the Glasgow shipping magnate Major Ion R. Harrison, and hung in his home, Croft House, in Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire.
The signed 22 x 18 inch oil painting on canvas will be among the highlights of Bonhams’ Scottish Art Sale on May 21, where it is expected to attract bids of £250,000-350,000.
May Matthews, Managing Director, 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.”
Other highlights in the sale include paintings by Peploe’s fellow Colourists F.C.B. Cadell’s and George Leslie Hunter.
Cadell’s portrait of May Easter could fetch £40,000-60,000, while his landscape depicting The Island of Rhum from Iona is expected to make £30,000-50,000, while Hunter’s Still Life with Jug carries an estimate of £20,000-30,000.
S.J. Peploe, born in Edinburgh in 1871, was the eldest of the four Scottish Colourists, who also included John Duncan Fergusson, George Leslie Hunter and Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell.
Peploe spent much of his career on a quest to produce the perfect still life, and became renowned for his compositions.
In a letter, he wrote: “There is so much in mere objects, flowers, leaves, jugs, what not — colours, forms, relations — I can never see the mystery coming to an end.”
Major Harrison first encountered Peploe’s work at an exhibition in Glasgow in 1921 and was captivated by his still lifes.
He became a close friend and patron of Peploe and the other Scottish Colourists, and built a remarkable collection of their works.
Harrison considered all four artists “equally great, each in his own special way” and hung their work in Croft House side by side “in glorious harmony”.
