Samuel John Peploe 1871-1935

Samuel John Peploe, a key Scottish Colourist, was deeply influenced by his time in Paris—studying at both the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi—and by artists like Eduoard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and van Gogh. His still lifes and landscapes are celebrated for their bold use of colour, tight composition, and confident brushwork.

During the 1920s, he began summer painting excursions to Iona with fellow Scottish Colourist F. C. B. Cadell, embracing the Hebridean island’s luminous light and landscape as a new source of inspiration. Peploe’s Iona works, such as 'Iona Landscape: Rocks' (c.1925–27)—now in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art—demonstrate his move towards a cooler palette of greens and blues, perfectly attuned to the clarity and drama of the island’s setting. These canvases mark a significant stage in his career, uniting the structural discipline inherited from Cézanne with the expressive colourism associated with Matisse and the Fauves.

Today, Peploe’s works are beloved examples of early twentieth-century Scottish painting, art that blends local landscapes with European avant-garde influences, anchored technical confidence and vibrant chromatic vision.