THERE is growing excitement in the art world ahead of an auction in Edinburgh on Wednesday that will feature works by some of Scotland’s greatest artists.
Lyon and Turnbull will auction works by members of both the Glasgow Boys and Scottish Colourists as well as many other distinguished artists such as John Bellany and Henry Raeburn.
Experts say a seven-figure sum could be spent on the 116 lots, with the top price expected for an oil on canvas, A Still Life of Apples and Pears, by the Colourist Samuel Peploe. It is tipped to fetch between £150,000 and £200,000.
Lyon and Turnbull’s head of paintings Nick Curnow said: “Hailed in 1926 by The Scotsman as a ‘Scottish Cezanne’, Peploe shows himself in this picture, and others known to have been painted during this period, to have mastered a rare harmony of colour and form.”
Several works by Peploe’s fellow Colourist Francis Cadell are also up for sale, including the oil painting The Blue Mountain which is expected to fetch between £80,000 and £120,000.
Speaking of The Blue Mountain, Curnow said: “The paintings produced by SJ Peploe and FCB Cadell over twenty years from 1912 to 1933 on the tiny Scottish island of Iona are among the finest of their oeuvres. Both artists were much taken by the unique character of the island, which had been attracting artists for many years.
“While Peploe painted almost exclusively in the north of the island, Cadell tended to experiment with location. It seems possible that this view was painted either while on an excursion to Erraid or from a vantage point on the south-east coast of Iona itself, perhaps close to the Marble Quarry.”
Likely to fetch the second highest sum in the auction is The Morning Paper by James Guthrie, one of the leading Glasgow Boys. It is estimated at between £100,000 and £150,000 – a considerable change from when it was first featured in a public sale and failed to find a buyer.
Painted in 1890, the signed work in pastel was one of a large number created by the artist during his residence in Helensburgh in Argyll and Bute.
Curnow explained that after five months, “Guthrie had produced enough drawings to send to show at the Dowdeswell Gallery in London. Uncatalogued, the exhibition comprised some fifty pastels, which, although well received by the major London critics, singularly failed to sell.
However, he added: “The following year however, when shown in Lawrie’s Gallery in Glasgow’s St Vincent Street, Guthrie’s pastels sold out.”
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