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signed l.l.: peploe

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Glasgow, Pearson & Westergaard Ltd.;
London, The Lefevre Gallery;
Miles Donnely Esq.;
Private collection
EXHIBITED

Glasgow, McLellan Galleries, The Thistle Foundation, Pictures from a Private Collection, 1951
CATALOGUE NOTE

'Studies of roses, in particular, began to appear...which he continued to produce throughout the years, changing as his style developed but invariably fine.' (Stanley Cursiter, Peploe, An Intimate Memoir of an Artist and of his Work, 1947, p. 54)

Roses in a White Vase with Fruit was painted in the mid to late 1920s when Peploe's still lifes were at their most vibrant and the colour schemes pared down to a limited number of complimentary colours. In 1923 Walter Sickert wrote of the new phase that Peploe had entered with his work; 'He has transferred his unit on attention from attentuated and exquisite gradations of tone to no less skillfully related colour. And by relating all his lines with frankness to the 180 degrees of two right angles, he is able to capture and digest a wider field of vision than before... His volte-face has been an intellectual progress. Obviously beautiful as was Mr. Peploe's earlier quality, his present one will establish itself as the more beautiful of the two.' (W. R. Sickert, Cadell, Fergusson, Hunter and Peploe, preface to the Leicester Galleries catalogue, 1925) Around 1920 Peploe began to paint on an absorbent white gesso ground and ceased to varnish his pictures, allowing the pure colour of the paint to show. He also moved away from painting with strong black outlines and increasingly focused upon the two-dimensional aspect of his designs. He held at least one exhibition in London and Edinburgh every year, the majority comprised of still life studies which he painted at home in his studio, where his introverted character was able to produce works of remarkably bold and confident execution, without the outside distractions which hampered his outdoor work.

According to Peploe's niece, the artist would often spend painstaking weeks setting up still lifes in his studio, substituting objects and re-assessing their position in the set-up until the harmony of colour and balance of composition was exactly how he wanted it to be. He would enter his studio in the morning and view the arrayed still life afresh, gently adjusting, adding and subtracting until he was satisfied. Every consideration was made, the contours of the tablecloth, the hues of the plump fruit and the angles of the selected blooms of roses in favourite china vases. Only after he was certain that he had reached the desired effect, would he begin work upon his painting. His temperament made him ideally suited to the task he had set himself, to render the perfect still life. His calm reasoning and thoughtful manner enabled him to make a careful analysis of the problems which faced the still life painter, and he set about resolving them in a series of works which include many of his most satisfying paintings. 'Peploe immersed himself in work, he struggled with the ideals that he had constantly in mind; by application and sheer hard work he steadily gained command over his materials, his design became more flexible and his work increased in power.' (ibid. Cursiter, 1947, p. 37)