Iona Croft (mid-1920s) by Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell
Cadell found solace in the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland, a welcome break from the bustle of his native Edinburgh. He first visited in 1912, after which he journeyed back and forth almost every summer, often together with fellow Scottish Colourist, Peploe. His oil paintings capture daily life on the island – in this instance, a whitewashed, bright-roofed dwelling on a grassy knoll. Composed of rich colours and rough brushstrokes, the works sold well back in the Scottish capital, where they provided urbanites with a taste of island living.
Red Roofs (Dieppe) (1922) by Margaret Morris
The influence of Scottish Colourists such as Cadell on Morris shines through in this piled-high work, with its strong hues and angular planes. Painted during a trip to Ourville, near a town called Dieppe on the coast of northern France, it presents a jumble of houses in a style that teeters on the edge of Abstraction. A dance teacher as well as an artist, with a love of more free and modern movements, Morris established the Celtic Ballet Club and later the Scottish National Ballet. She also collaborated with her husband, the Scottish artist J.D. Fergusson, on the design of her productions.
Mother and Child (1920s) by Norah Neilson Gray
Gray too was a teacher, in her case of design and drawing at the Glasgow School of Art, where she studied. After the First World War she established her own portrait practice, working with both oil paint and watercolour and producing stylised images of women and children that are recognisable by their curious figure placement and palette. Here, a young mother kisses her child’s cheek, the pair a silvery silhouette against a golden-yellow backdrop. Gray also made illustrations, some of which feature in a 1913 edition of William Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood”.
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