Richard Green is delighted to loan the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art a key painting by the celebrated Scottish Colourist, Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (1883-1937). 'Interior, the Red Chair' will be included in Cadell’s first solo exhibition to be held at a public gallery since his Memorial Exhibition at the National Gallery, Scotland, in 1942. It will be shown with about seventy of his most important paintings, loaned from public and private collections, at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Two, the sister building of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, formerly The Dean Gallery.
Born in Edinburgh, Cadell was the youngest of the four Scottish Colourists - including J.D. Fergusson, G.L. Hunter and S.J. Peploe - and is celebrated for his stylish portrayals of Edinburgh New Town interiors and the elegant society that occupied them. 'Interior, the Red Chair,' dates from the late 1920s and encapsulates Cadell’s celebrated post-war Fauvist style that famously juxtaposes flat ares of intense, bold colour and thickly applied paint.
Cadell used his drawing room at 6 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh, as a studio in which to paint, and a number of the features portrayed in Interior, the Red Chair, can be found in other of his works - the fireplace, the blue and white pot, the Persian ceramic tile, the black lacquer Japanese cabinet and the bright red chair.
Richard Green has a long history of handling works by the Scottish Colourists and always stocks fine examples. In addition to this important interior by Cadell, currently in the Richard Green collection for sale is ‘Still life with silver tea-pot’ c.1915-1920, by George Leslie Hunter. Combing the influence of Seventeenth century Dutch masters of the genre with the palette and application characteristic of modern French art, these vital works led to his initial association with the other Scottish Colourists.
Another important work on view and for sale at Richard Green is JD Fergusson’s stylish Art Deco portrait of Grace McColl. Beautiful women were Fergusson’s favourite subject and this half length portrait of the wife of his friend and patron, Harry McColl, with its strong, rhythmic lines, colours and patterns, portrays the sitter as a fashionable icon of the day.