A Scottish Colourists Book

I am delighted to share the news that I have been commissioned to write a book about the Scottish Colourists by the National Galleries of Scotland, for publication in late 2026.

The Scottish Colourists

The label ‘Scottish Colourist’ is most commonly applied to the four artists F. C. B. Cadell (1883-1937), J. D. Fergusson (1874-1961), G. L. Hunter (1877-1931) and S. J. Peploe (1871-1935). They are arguably Scotland’s most important twentieth-century artists, who shared direct experience of modern French art and a love of brilliant colour.

Samuel John Peploe

Peploe was born in Edinburgh in 1871 and was the eldest of the Colourists. In the book I shall describe him as the most ‘professional’ of the quartet. He is seen above in an early – and rare – self-portrait which was presented to the National Galleries of Scotland by John Thorburn in 1947.

John Duncan Fergusson

Peploe met Fergusson in Edinburgh in around 1900. Fergusson was born in Leith, near the Scottish capital and in the book I shall describe him as the most ‘international’ of the Colourists. He is seen above in a self-portrait painted shortly after he moved to Paris in 1907. It was part of a major gift of his work in 1991 by the J. D. Fergusson Art Foundation established after his death, to what is now known as Culture Perth & Kinross.

George Leslie Hunter

It is thought that Hunter tried to meet Peploe and Fergusson in Paris before the First World War, but they knew each other by 1918. He was born in Rothesay on the isle of Bute and in the book I shall describe him as the most ‘independent’ of the group. A self-portrait has not been traced, but the above is a photograph of Hunter in the National Galleries of Scotland collection.

Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell

Cadell was born in Edinburgh in 1883 and was the youngest of the Scottish Colourists. He briefly overlapped with Peploe as a student at the Royal Scottish Academy Life Class in the 1901-02 academic year and through him was to eventually meet Fergusson and Hunter. His bravura self-portrait of c.1914 above was purchased by the National Galleries of Scotland in 2015.

My research for the Scottish Colourists book is well underway and I look forward to introducing these four wonderful modern Scottish artists to those not already familiar with them, as well as presenting new facts and arguments about them to those who already admire their work.

To read more about the Scottish Colourists, you might like to listen to a recording of a talk I recently gave about them for the National Galleries of Scotland via this blog. I wrote about a painting by Cadell entering the national collection here, I marked the 150th anniversary of Fergusson’s birth with this article and I realise it is high time that I wrote something on this website specifically about Peploe!