A Street in Cassis, 1913

A Street in Cassis may well have been included in a 1914 London exhibition, but was retained subsequently in the family until the thirties when it was acquired, along with another of a similar subject, by Stanley Cursiter (illustrated in Peploe, An Intimate Memoir by Cursiter, plate 17, 1947). Cursiter (1887–1976) was an important Scottish painter and polymath, becoming Keeper of the National Gallery of Scotland from 1930. He was a great advocate for the Colourists and Peploe in particular, acquiring several key works for the Nation and writing his book on Peploe in 1947. He lent both works to the Memorial Exhibition at The Scottish Gallery in 1936. The gallery sold A Street in Cassis to an Edinburgh architect in 1977 and it has returned to us by descent, completing a 110-year provenance.

A Street in Cassis is made in brilliant afternoon light, the sharp profile of the shadows across the street providing essential building blocks of tonal composition, the shadow not elusive but definitive. The technique is impressionistic; deft strokes, but not of uniform length, and the colour, based in the reality of the experience (remember Signac), is pushed to the point of expressionism. The tiles and beams of the roof structures are zingy orange, the walls white in the heat and yellow in the shade. The road curves into a hairpin to the left, inviting us to walk down. The view of the hill beyond is hot and mineral and the blue sky unleashes heat, making us hope that the artist has at least set up his easel in the shade.