The Chalice, 1906

W.W. Peploe was the older brother of S.J. Peploe, and a talented artist in his own right. He never took the leap to imagine a professional career. Instead, he worked, eventually as Manager with his father’s bank, at the Stockbridge branch from 1901. The brothers were close and they often holidayed together, particularly after the Great War travelling to Iona where Willie made competent drawings of the vistas. In 1906 he published Memories and Illusions a book of thirty black and white drawings in Indian ink, described in the frontispiece as “A Gift to his Friends.” Subsequently the Booklovers Magazine, an American journal published between 1903 and 1909 with a peak circulation of 100,000, reproduced a number of the images with positive notes from the editor. French symbolism is clearly linked and the work of Aubrey Beardsley a direct influence both stylistically and thematically.