Download a PDF of the exhibition catalogue - The Scottish Gallery

Le Touquet Paris-Plage is a resort on the Normandy coast which has endured as a tourist destination since it was founded
in 1876 by Hippolyte de Villemessant the owner of Le Figaro. The land was bought by an Englishman in 1903 and it became
as fashionable in London as it did in Paris with golf courses and a racecourse being added to the splendid architecture
which characterizes the seafront. At the northern end the River Canche disgorges into the Channel and from there miles
of beach stretch to the south. There is an immense tidal reach and so huge capacity for the holidaymaker to sit, exercise
or bathe. Peploe began to visit in the early years of the century, often with his friend John Duncan Fergusson. They both
painted a variety of subjects including the view across the sand towards the sea and a horizon often lost in haze so that
the subject, devoid of its holidaymakers as dawn or dusk, could be almost abstract and without features. Through one
hundred and eighty degrees the view could not be in more contrast; the traffic of the streets, colourful bathing tents
and fashionable denizens of the grand hotels and casinos taking their afternoon promenade are described in flurries of
paint. By 1907 Peploe was approaching the limit of his engagement with Impressionism and the freedom and fluidity
of his marks are astonishing and indeed in great contrast to the short ‘touche’ deployed by Sisley or Monet. But it is
Impressionism; as much about light and atmosphere as figure and landscape, always made en plein air.
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