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ART HISTORYts
t
he Scottish Colourists is a collective
name given to Samuel Peploe, John
Duncan Fergusson, Francis Cadell and
Leslie Hunter, four Edinburgh painters who
made their mark at the dawning of the 20th
century. Each artist created elegant portraits,
blocky still life and fond Scottish scenes,
reworking the techniques of the French
Impressionists into something bolder and
distinctive, forsaking pastel blues for bright
primary hues.
A question often asked of the group is
whether they festishised light and colour
because their surroundings in the early 20th
century had so little of it? This is often posed
by anyone who hasn’t spent enough time in
the Scottish capital, a place that the author
Alexander McCall Smith would famously later
describe as “a city of shifting light, of changing
skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it
breaks the heart again and again.”
It was less a case of lacking colour and light
at home in Edinburgh and more that they
wanted to imbue their surroundings with the
vibrancy they had seen elsewhere. Their
outlook was far broader than their patriotic
collective name suggests too. They each spent
time studying in Europe and the USA, returning
with a thirst for both modern art and classical
paintings they had seen on their travels.