Best place to see Scottish colourists

Published on 06/01/2009 19:00

The paintings of Samuel John Peploe fetch big money at auction, and along with other Scottish Colourist paintings, represent a rich artistic inheritance

KELVINGROVE ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM, Argyle Street, Glasgow, 0141-276 9599 www.glasgowmuseums.com

The newly refurbished Kelvingrove has a Scottish Art room where some Scottish Colourist paintings are on display. There were four artists in the group – Francis Cadell, Leslie Hunter, JD Fergusson and Samuel Peploe.

Painting in the first half of the 20th century mainly, they specialised in brilliant landscapes and still lifes with some portraiture as well.

JD FERGUSSON GALLERY, Marshall Place, Perth, 01738 441944 www.pkc.gov.uk

The gallery is near the leafy banks of the Tay, adjacent to the town centre. Converted from an old water tower, it contains the works of JD Fergusson alone. He was the longest lived of the four colourists, working up to 1960 in Glasgow. They all spent time in France in either Paris or the Cote D'Azur, taking advantage of the beautiful weather and learning from the artists who turned Paris into the leading artistic city in Europe.

The gallery will make a print of any of his catalogued works for you to order.

ABERDEEN ART GALLERY, Schoolhill, Aberdeen, 01224 523700 www.aagm.co.uk

The gallery has an extensive collection of paintings by Hunter and Peploe, some of which are permanently on show upstairs in the lovely hall overlooking the main foyer of the gallery.

Hunter was the odd one out of the four, living in California for a while. Eventually, he returned to Glasgow and also spent time in France which he found helped his ill health.

KIRKCALDY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY, Abbotshall Road, Kirkcaldy, 08451 555555 www.fifedirect.org.uk/museums

The museum is next to the railway station and has a large collection of paintings by Peploe, 20 of which are on display, along with a few each by the other colourists.

Peploe enjoyed visiting Iona and painting the wonderful scenery he found there, as did Cadell. Peploe was quite a prolific and consistent painter and prospered in the depression where some of the others fell out of favour.

SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART, Belford Road, Edinburgh, 0131-624 6336 www.nationalgalleries.org.uk

The Gallery of Modern Art has a collection of Scottish colourists, some of which are always on show, along with other 20th-century paintings by Scottish artists.

Enjoy a winter's day in one of these galleries – they all have cafs, except the Fergusson Gallery in Perth.