The Scottish Colourists were a group of four painters, three from Edinburgh, whose Post-Impressionist work, though not universally recognised initially, came to have a formative influence on contemporary Scottish art and culture. The four artists, Francis Cadell, John Duncan Fergusson, Leslie Hunter and Samuel Peploe, were prolific painters spanning the turn of the twentieth century until the beginnings of World War II.[1][2] While now banded as one group with a collective achievement and a common sense of British identity, it is a misnomer to believe their artwork or their painterly careers were heterogeneous.[3][4]
Generally however, the group shared a common interest in the artistic developments occurring in France and are shown to dabble with different styles such as Cubism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Futurism.[5] The movement seemed to fall out of favour by the end of World War II, and did not experience a revival until the 1980s.[6]
The Scottish Colourists combined their training in France and the work of French Impressionists and Fauvists, such as Monet, Matisse and Cézanne, with the painting traditions of Scotland.[8] A forerunner of this movement was William McTaggart (1835–1910), a Scottishlandscapepainter who was influenced by Post-Impressionism. He is regarded as one of the great interpreters of the Scottish landscape and is often labelled the "Scottish Impressionist".
The expression ‘Scottish Colourists’ according to Macmillan may have first been used as early as 1915 in the Studio magazine. Its specific association in print, again according to Macmillan, seems to have been first used by T J Honeyman,[9] the art critic and director of Glasgow Art Gallery, in his book Three Scottish Colourists published in 1950.
The four artists did in fact exhibit together, for the first time in 1924 in Paris at an exhibition at the Galerie Barbazanges entitled ‘Les Peintres de l’Ecosse Moderne’ (Bilcliffe) .[10] The following year, they showed together at an exhibition in London at the Leicester Gallery. In total, the four artists exhibited three times over the course of their lives.[4]
The Scottish Colourists were internationally known during their lifetimes but their work fell out of favour by World War II,[11] until they were rediscovered in the 1980s and subsequently played an influential role in the development of Scottish art.[12]
Artistic style
While each of the four artists had a unique style, their work shared common interests in experimentation with light and shade, planar brushstrokes, bold use of colour, and a vibrant and confident tone.[4] Their subject matter is often considered conservative compared to their French counterparts, since much of it consisted of island landscapes, Edinburgh interiors and fashionable models.[12]
Much of their early work was influenced by the likes of Édouard Manet and the French Impressionists. Manet’s influence can be seen in both the Colourists’ early colour scheme, which used soft, muted tones, and in their thick brushstrokes.[13] Peploe's 'White Period' shows such influence with the subtle balance of tone and colour, and a rich creaminess in the paint's texture.[5]
Samuel Peploe, The Black Bottle, about 1905, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
However, as French visual culture developed in the early 20th century, so did the Colourists' artistic style. J.D. Fergusson was the first in the group to feel the influence of the Cubists and Futurists, who experimented with rhythm as a way to connect the foreground and background of works.[5] Rhythm became a continuous trend in his work, with critics later commenting on his outstanding ability to translate the joy and musicality of his subjects through his use of colour.[14] Alongside Cubism, later experiments with the styles of Post-Impressionism can be seen in the Matisse-like use of green paint to convey shadows, and the structural and tonal landscape compositions influenced by Cézanne.[13]
This is not to say that the movement only copied the styles and themes of French art. They "absorbed and reworked the strong and vibrant colours of contemporary French painting into a distinctive Scottish idiom during the 1920s and 1930s".[12] Peploe stated that his style was an attempt to simultaneously find truth through light, form and colour, while also remain faithful to one’s own emotions and understandings of the art he is creating.[15] The impact of the Scottish Celticism movement can be seen in the works of J.D. Fergusson. Celticism focused on abstract forms and detailed surface pattern, rearranging space, and composition in an almost Cubist capacity.[16]
↑ McEwan, P J M, The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture, 2nd Edition (2004), Glengarden Press, Ballater, 620pp, over 12,000 references and bibliography.
↑ Macmillan, D, Scottish Art 1460 – 2000 (2000), Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh and London, 464pp, 369 illustrations, a magisterial work, see Chapter XVII The Colourists.
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities, ordinary subject matter, unusual visual angles, and inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience. Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s.
The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. It has been described as Australian impressionism.
Impression, Sunrise is an 1872 painting by Claude Monet first shown at what would become known as the "Exhibition of the Impressionists" in Paris in April, 1874. The painting is credited with inspiring the name of the Impressionist movement.
American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors with a wide array of subject matters but focusing on landscapes and upper-class domestic life.
National Galleries Scotland: Modern is part of National Galleries Scotland, which is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Modern houses the collection of modern and contemporary art dating from about 1900 to the present in two buildings, Modern One and Modern Two, that face each other on Belford Road to the west of the city centre.
Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell RSA was a Scottish Colourist painter, renowned for his depictions of the elegant New Town interiors of his native Edinburgh, and for his work on Iona.
John Duncan Fergusson was a Scottish artist and sculptor, regarded as one of the major artists of the Scottish Colourists school of painting.
Samuel John Peploe was a Scottish Post-Impressionist painter, noted for his still life works and for being one of the group of four painters that became known as the Scottish Colourists. The other colourists were John Duncan Fergusson, Francis Cadell and Leslie Hunter.
George Leslie Hunter was a Scottish painter, regarded as one of the four artists of the Scottish Colourists group of painters. Christened simply George Hunter, he adopted the name Leslie in San Francisco, and Leslie Hunter became his professional name. Showing an aptitude for drawing at an early age, he was largely self-taught, receiving only elementary painting lessons from a family acquaintance. He spent fourteen years from the age of fifteen in the US, mainly in California. Hunter made an extended trip to Scotland, Paris and New York from 1903 to 1905. In 1906 he left San Francisco and returned to Scotland, painting and drawing there, notably in Fife and at Loch Lomond. Subsequently he travelled widely in Europe, especially in the South of France, but also in the Netherlands, the Pas de Calais and Italy. He also returned to New York in 1924 and 1928–1929.
William McTaggart was a Scottish landscape and marine painter who was influenced by Impressionism.
Scottish art is the body of visual art made in what is now Scotland, or about Scottish subjects, since prehistoric times. It forms a distinctive tradition within European art, but the political union with England has led its partial subsumation in British art.
The Fleming Collection is a large private collection of Scottish art. Originally a corporate collection dominating the walls of the Flemings bank, it had a home in a gallery on Berkeley Square, central London, England from 2002 until the gallery's closure in 2016. It now operates as a loaning and touring collection.
Colourist painting is a style of painting characterised by the use of intense colour, which becomes the dominant feature of the resultant work of art, more important than its other qualities. It has been associated with a number of artists and art movements throughout the 20th century.
The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (RGI) is an independent organisation in Glasgow, founded in 1861, which promotes contemporary art and artists in Scotland. The institute organizes the largest and most prestigious annual art exhibition in Scotland - open to all artists.
The New Scottish Group was a loose collection of artists based in Glasgow, who exhibited from 1942 to 1956. It was formed around John Duncan Fergusson after his return to Glasgow in 1939. It had its origins in the New Art Club formed in 1940, and had its first exhibition in 1942. Members did not have a common style, but shared left-wing views and were influenced by contemporary continental art. Members included Donald Bain, William Crosbie, Marie de Banzie and Isabel Babianska. Tom MacDonald, Bet Low and William Senior formed the Clyde Group to pursue political painting that manifested in urban industrial landscapes. The group helped start the careers of a generation of Glasgow-based artists and was part of a wider cultural "golden age" for the city.
Art in modern Scotland includes all aspects of the visual arts in the country since the beginning of the twentieth century. In the early twentieth century, the art scene was dominated by the work of the members of the Glasgow School known as the Four, led by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who gained an international reputation for their combination of Celtic revival, Art and Crafts and Art Nouveau. They were followed by the Scottish Colourists and the Edinburgh School. There was a growing interest in forms of Modernism, with William Johnstone helping to develop the concept of a Scottish Renaissance. In the post-war period, major artists, including John Bellany and Alexander Moffat, pursued a strand of "Scottish realism". Moffat's influence can be seen in the work of the "new Glasgow Boys" from the late twentieth century. In the twenty-first century Scotland has continued to produce influential artists such as Douglas Gordon and Susan Philipsz.
Landscape painting in Scotland includes all forms of painting of landscapes in Scotland since its origins in the sixteenth century to the present day. The earliest examples of Scottish landscape painting are in the tradition of Scottish house decoration that arose in the sixteenth century. Often said to be the earliest surviving painted landscape created in Scotland is a depiction by the Flemish artist Alexander Keirincx undertaken for Charles I.
Alexander Reid (1854–1928) was a Glasgow art dealer and amateur artist, and friend of James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Vincent van Gogh. He was one of the most influential art dealers in Europe in the early 20th century, exhibiting and selling artworks by some of the finest artists of his period, including the Impressionists, the Post-Impressionists, the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists. He helped build up the French painting collection of Sir William Burrell. and many of the works he dealt with now feature in major private, civic and national art collections all over the world. Within the Scottish art world he was called Monticelli Reid.
Beatrice Huntington was a Scottish artist, sculptor and musician exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy, Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Glasgow Institute. A natural colourist, she is most celebrated as a portrait painter.
The Society of Eight was an artistic grouping of Scottish painters. The Society set up its own gallery space in Edinburgh to exhibit their work. It was founded in 1912 and last exhibited in 1938. The Society did not reform after the Second World War.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
