Kyrenia Harbour, Cyprus, 1951
signed lower right
PROVENANCE:
The Artist’s Estate
Denis Peploe’s close friend from his student days, John Guthrie, grandson of the painter Sir James Guthrie, moved to Cyprus after the War to run a hospital. Denis became a frequent visitor to Belapais, above Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus, where John and his wife Vivian, daughter of the painter John Duncan, made their home.
The palette recalls the sunlit Mediterranean colours of Dufy and Matisse, yet here becomes almost pyrotechnic. The tight harbour, castle and steep escarpment are rendered in loose geometric forms, animated by bold streaks of primary colour. This is Denis Peploe’s own response to the Mediterranean, just as S.J. Peploe had responded to the light and colour of France a generation earlier
About Denis Peploe
Denis Peploe RSA (1914–1993) was born in Edinburgh, the second son of the Scottish Colourist S. J. Peploe. Growing up within one of Scotland’s most distinguished artistic families, he accompanied his father on painting trips to Iona and the south of France, yet from an early stage developed an independent artistic identity and remained wary of direct comparison with his celebrated parent.
