signed lower right
PROVENANCE:
The Artist’s Estate
Denis Peploe and thence by descent
This striking portrait, painted towards the end of S.J. Peploe’s career, is believed to depict Merle Taylor (1909-1985), the daughter of the artist and designer Jessie M. King (1875–1949) and her husband, the painter and designer E.A. Taylor (1871-1951). The sitter bears a notable resemblance to King herself and given Peploe’s personal approach to portraiture, the painting strongly suggests a friendship or family connection. Peploe did not take portrait commissions; his figure paintings were either of family or professional models.
Portrait of a Girl has remained within the artist’s studio collection and has never previously been exhibited publicly, reinforcing the sense of intimacy and personal connection surrounding the painting. Peploe and Jessie M. King moved within overlapping artistic circles for many years, particularly through their mutual connections to Paris and then Kirkcudbright and the wider Scottish artistic community which flourished there during the First World War and beyond. During the War years Peploe spent significant periods in south-west Scotland where the creative presence in Kirkcudbright of King and Taylor made the town an important haven for artists, designers and writers.
The portrait belongs to Peploe’s late figure painting, combining structural assurance with a refined emotional sensitivity. The young sitter is presented with quiet confidence, her strong bone structure emphasised through decisive linear accents around the eyebrows, eyes and nose. Peploe’s handling of paint remains fresh and modern, with subtle flashes of Fauvist green and mauve enlivening the flesh tones and shadows. These unexpected colour notes animate the surface and reveal the enduring influence of expressionism.
Particularly captivating is the treatment of the sitter’s gleaming hair, which frames the face with sculptural clarity and contrasts beautifully against the more delicate tonal passages of the skin. She holds a relaxed gaze. The portrait is both elegant and modern, the portrait reflects Peploe’s ability to balance formal structure with intimacy.
About S.J. Peploe
Born in 1871 in Edinburgh, S.J. Peploe is the senior of the four artists known as The Scottish Colourists. He lived in Paris from 1910 until 1912, where his work changed radically from paintings reminiscent of Manet and Sargent to brilliant Fauvist works which placed him in the vanguard of British Modernism.
