Download PDF: SJ Peploe - The Scottish Gallery

Barra Landscape, c.1903Signed lower rightOil on panel, 15.5 x 23.5 cmsProvenance: Alex Reid and Lefevre, London, 1946; JW BlythCollection; The Taste of JW Blyth, July 2012, The Scottish Gallery,EdinburghThere is a reference in a letter to a visit Peploe made to Barra in1903 so that is the date attributed to most of the known works hepainted there. He might well have visited several times as there issignificant stylistic variety within the Barra pictures which couldindicate earlier and later trips to the island. He painted on smallerpanels, for which he used a ‘pochard’ painting box which allowedhim freedom to roam the island to find his subjects. Castlebayitself provided several subjects, sometimes observed from therampart of Kisimul Castle in the bay, the ancestral strongholdof the MacNeils of Barra, but Peploe also ventured to the north ofthe island where great, sweeping beaches extend below machairand rocky escarpments. Today the airplane lands at low tideon Traigh Mhor but this picture is the view south from Seal Bayincluding the spur of Hierval on the horizon.14