I was delighted to be asked to write about ‘a Cadell for the nation’, to celebrate the gift of an important painting by the Scottish Colourist F. C. B. Cadell (1883-1937) to the National Galleries of Scotland.
oil on panel, 45 x 37cm
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh: Anonymous Gift 2022
The Rose and the Lacquer Screen
Cadell is one of the four artists known as the Scottish Colourists, along with J. D. Fergusson, G. L. Hunter and S. J. Peploe, who are Scotland’s most celebrated artists of the twentieth-century. His work The Rose and the Lacquer Screen dates from the early 1920s, shortly after the artist moved to a new home and studio at 6 Ainslie Place, in Edinburgh’s New Town. It is a fine example of the closely-cropped, tightly-handled, severely flattened and brilliantly coloured still lifes which Cadell made at the peak of his creative powers.
6 Ainslie Place
Cadell’s home was magnificent: it was set over three principal floors, with two basement levels and an attic. He painted his front door bright blue to annoy his neighbours and took great trouble over the stylish decoration and furnishing of its interiors. They in turn became the subject and setting of many of his most celebrated paintings, including Interior: The Orange Blind, c.1927 (Glasgow Life Museums) and Portrait of a Lady in Black, c.1921 (National Galleries of Scotland).
watercolour and ink on card, 43 x 32cm
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh: Purchased 1994
Cadell in the National Collection
The Rose and the Lacquer Screen joins sixty-six others works by Cadell in, or on loan to, the national collection. They consist of thirteen paintings and fifty-three works on paper, including the watercolour Jack and Tommy of 1915. This comes from a series depicting life in the army and navy which Cadell made whilst training to serve in World War One. The new acquisition was presented by an anonymous donor last year and is currently on display in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art One. My blog about this Cadell for the nation has recently been published on the National Galleries of Scotland’s website and can be read here.
I have recently lectured about Cadell’s links with the New Town, which you can find out about in this feature. I also wrote about Cadell for the Art UK website, in an article which you can find at this link. For more about the Scottish Colourists, you might enjoy this blog.
