Roses and Fan 1930

Samuel Peploe’s Roses and Fan is an oil painting that blooms with thick, confident strokes and a lively dance of pinks, blues, and greens. It’s a process laid bare. Look at the way Peploe builds up the roses – each petal a deliberate dab, a generous dollop of paint. There's a delightful tension between the solidity of the objects and the fleeting, impressionistic quality of the light. See the single apple sitting at the foot of the vase? It’s a little world of warm orange and yellow, grounded by a dark, almost brooding shadow. That shadow, those dark strokes, gives the whole scene a punch. Peploe was a Scottish Colourist, and you can see how he's in conversation with artists like Matisse, who used colour to express feeling. This piece isn't about photographic accuracy; it's about capturing a mood, an essence. It's a reminder that painting is an act of translation, a way of making sense of the world through color and form.