1871 -1935 · Edinburgh, Paris and Scottish colorism

Roses, coffee makers, gardens and bright landscapes make Samuel John Peploe a master of tight composition and modern color in Scotland.

Samuel John Peploe was born in Edinburgh in 1871 and died there in 1935. After studying at the Royal Scottish Academy Schools, he completed his training in Paris, where museums, Manet and modern French painting left a lasting impression on him. His first still lifes used dark backgrounds, silver objects and dense material. Installed in Paris from 1910 to 1912, he clarified his palette and further structured the forms under the influence of post-impressionism and Fauvism. Returning to Edinburgh, he tirelessly organized roses, tulips, fruits, fans, books, vases and coffee makers in his studio. Still life in the coffee maker shows how a small group of objects can become an architecture of blacks, whites and reflections. Pink roses combines the fragility of the petals with the almost geometric stability of the vase and the background. Peploe also paints outdoors in Paris, in the north of France, in Cassis, in Kirkcudbright and on the island of Iona. Luxembourg Gardens translates this experience into flat areas of light and a free perspective. With Cadell, Fergusson and Hunter, he forms the group today called the Scottish Colourists. Without becoming abstract, he pushes color, touch and relationships of shape to the point of making each familiar motif an autonomous pictorial search. Without becoming abstract, he pushes color, touch and relationships of shape to the point of making each familiar motif an autonomous pictorial search. Without becoming abstract, he pushes color, touch and relationships of shape to the point of making each familiar motif an autonomous pictorial search. Without becoming abstract, he pushes color, touch and relationships of shape to the point of making each familiar motif an autonomous pictorial search. Without becoming abstract, he pushes color, touch and relationships of shape to the point of making each familiar motif an autonomous pictorial search. Without becoming abstract, he pushes color, touch and relationships of shape to the point of making each familiar motif an autonomous pictorial search. Without becoming abstract, he pushes color, touch and relationships of shape to the point of coffee maker and pink roses. His reading favors the story.

At Peploe, a rose or a coffee maker is never a simple object: it is a weight of color balanced with the whole picture.