Boats at Royan by Samuel John Peploe art print

28 x 35.6 cm art print featuring artwork Boats at Royan by Samuel John Peploe, part of the National Galleries of Scotland Collection.

Peploe spent the summer of 1910 in Royan on the west coast of France, painting with the artist J.D. Fergusson. The Gallery also owns a painting by Fergusson from the same time. Peploe moved to France in 1910 with his wife, and their son was born in Royan that summer.

Like Fergusson, Peploe’s exposure to avant-garde painting had led to his work developing in a more expressionistic manner, as seen by the brushwork in this painting. This small panel would have been painted out of doors, the bright light also encouraging a brightening of the palette.

Peploe is one of the group of four artists known as the 'Scottish Colourists'. Born in Edinburgh, he studied art in Paris and lived there from 1910 to 1912. It was through painting holidays in Northern France that he was introduced to the use of bold colour, inspired by the bright sunlight. He later experienced the same intensity of light while painting on the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland.