signed lower left
EXHIBITED:
Colourist Drawings, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1989, Cat. 4
This delicate early drawing by Cadell captures a young woman in profile, her dark hair and headdress carefully described with sensitivity and precision. Executed around 1900, when Cadell was still at the beginning of his artistic career, the drawing already reveals his instinctive understanding of elegance, character, and visual drama. The central focus is the sitter’s striking gold earring set with a diamond shaped stone and suspended pearl. The girl is drawn in profile, turned away from the artist as if unaware of being observed. The pencil is delicate but swiftly deployed, as brilliant and refined as a drawing by his contemporary Augustus John (1878-1961).
French Gypsy can be compared with S.J. Peploe’s early depictions of Jeannie Blyth, the flower seller and model who appeared in several paintings and works on paper. Both artists were drawn to sitters who lived outside conventional Edwardian society, using them as subjects through which to explore beauty, freedom, individuality, sensuality and mood. This drawing offers a fascinating glimpse of Cadell before the emergence of the fully formed Colourist style for which he would later become celebrated.
About F.C.B. Cadell
Cadell was born in Edinburgh in 1883 and from an early age, showed a precocious talent for art and was producing very capable watercolours and drawings in his early teens. Half French, he was taken to France and Munich by his mother for artistic education and some very fine, freely painted farmyard paintings date from this early period. Despite his sophistication, Cadell’s most natural habitat was the west Highlands, Iona in particular, and he made only a few painting trips to France after the War.
