Scottish Colourist paintings reunited after more than 70 years ahead of auction

Paintings by two Scottish Colourists are to go under the hammer in a “friends reunited” moment this week after more than 70 years apart.

Samuel John Peploe’s Firs At The Massif des Calanques, Cassis was displayed alongside Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell’s Interior – Santa Maria della Salute, Venice at an exhibition in Edinburgh in 1949.

They will feature in Lyon & Turnbull’s Scottish paintings and sculpture auction on Thursday, with each estimated to fetch between £80,000 and £120,000.

Firs At The Massif des Calanques, Cassis was painted in 1928 during the third of four trips Peploe made to the French port during a period of more than 25 years.

Cadell painted the interior of Santa Maria della Salute, a church which stands at the entrance to the Grand Canal, following a visit he made to Venice in 1910.

Both paintings featured in the Scottish Colourists exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy’s Festival Exhibition in 1949, where work by their friend Leslie Hunter was also on show.

Alice Strang, senior specialist with Lyon & Turnbull and an expert in the work of the Scottish Colourists, said: “This is a ‘friends reunited’ moment.

“It is thrilling to think that the last time these two beautiful paintings, by artists who were such good friends, were in the same room was in 1949, when they were exhibited together in the Royal Scottish Academy, down the road from our saleroom.

“The Peploe transports us to the heat of Cassis, whilst the Cadell takes us to the beauty of Venice.

“Their remarkable reunion will last until the sale day this Thursday.”