Collection: Francis Cadell

Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (1883–1937) was a Scottish painter associated with the Scottish Colourists, a group using a vibrant palette and post-impressionist technique. Born in Edinburgh, he trained in Paris and Munich before exhibiting his first works in Edinburgh in 1908. His early career was interrupted by service in the First World War, during which he documented military life in France.

Cadell’s mature work focused on two principal subjects: the interiors of Edinburgh’s New Town, rendered with a luminous, almost fauve intensity, and the landscapes of Iona, where he painted annually alongside Samuel Peploe. His interiors often feature solitary female figures in domestic settings, executed with a bold, flattened application of oil that recalls the Nabis. The Iona series employs a looser, plein air brushwork, capturing the island’s light and topography.

Though his reputation was largely confined to Scotland during his lifetime, Cadell’s work was included in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s 2011–12 retrospective, the first since 1942. This exhibition placed his paintings alongside those of early modernist experimenters in Scotland.