The Scottish Colourists and the Royal Scottish Academy

It was a pleasure to give the paper ‘”Complete Impotent Senility”: The Scottish Colourists and the Royal Scottish Academy’ at the Scottish Society of Art History (SSAH) and Royal Scottish Academy’s conference, Scottish Art and the Academy, on 6 February 2026.

Complete Impotent Senility

John Duncan Fergusson decried the ‘complete impotent senility’ of the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) in his 1943 book Modern Scottish Painting. He was resistant to ‘the establishment’ throughout his life and was essentially self-taught. From his days in pre-First World War Paris to post-Second World War Glasgow, Fergusson was a key member of various artists’ collectives from the Anglo-American Rhythmists to the New Art Club. Ultimately Fergusson wished to see a Scotland ‘where there was, if not a square deal, at least a fair fighting chance for the Independent Artist’ but he saw no role for the RSA in achieving that aim.

Boy Reading

In contrast, Samuel John Peploe’s relationship with the RSA lasted from his student days to his death. He trained at the RSA’s Life School between 1892 and 1896. When he returned for the 1901-02 session, his future fellow Scottish Colourist colleague, Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, was amongst his classmates. Peploe showed regularly in the RSA’s Annual Exhibitions from 1896 until his death, which was marked by a Memorial Tribute in its next iteration. Moreover, he was elected an Associate member (ARSA) in 1918 and achieved full Academician status in 1927. As a result he presented Boy Reading as his Diploma Work.

The Poet

Like Peploe, Cadell lived in Edinburgh for most of his life. He trained in Paris, Munich and at the RSA during the 1901-02 session. He contributed more frequently to the annual exhibitions of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (RGI) than to those of the RSA, but did show with the latter on twenty-five occasions between 1902 and 1937. After failures to be elected an ARSA Cadell requested that his name be removed from the Nomination List, but success came on the sixth attempt, in 1931; five years later he was made a full Academician and his Diploma Work was The Poet. Cadell received vital financial support from the RSA’s Alexander Nasmyth Fund for the Relief of Decayed Scottish Artists shortly before his death in 1937.

Houseboats at Balloch

Of the four Scottish Colourists, George Leslie Hunter had the least to do with the RSA. Although he travelled and worked away a lot, he would always return to the home of first his mother and then of his sister in Glasgow. It is therefore to be expected that he showed more frequently with the RGI and indeed, he showed with it virtually every year between 1916 and his death in 1931. However, Hunter’s work was included in various RSA Annual Exhibitions and Houseboats at Balloch may be the painting of that name displayed in that of 1927.

Festival Exhibition

In 1949, the RSA mounted a landmark exhibition of the work of Peploe, Hunter and Cadell, which included Peploe’s Still Life with Melon. It was the first time the three artists had been shown together in a public gallery and in the country of their birth. Following their deaths in the 1930s, Fergusson rarely exhibited with them until his own in 1961. Overall, the Scottish Colourists represent an extreme range of attitudes towards the RSA. I hope that my paper will be selected for publication in the SSAH’s journal, which will be published later this year. In the meantime, the RSA’s 200th Annual Exhibition will open on 9 May 2026.