SAMUEL JOHN PEPLOE, R.S.A. (1871-1935)

Between 1904 and 1907, Peploe and Fergusson spent an increasing amount of time in France, either in Paris or at the fashionable resorts on the Normandy coast such as Paris Plage. Peploe would take small canvas boards or panels so that he could easily paint outdoors, in the manner of many other French painters, such as Courbet, Boudin and Monet, who had travelled to many of the same locations to paint.

Painted on the spot, swiftly and fluidly, the present lot belongs to the group of small plein-air oil sketches that Peploe made on these trips. They are sketch-like; confident, direct and sparing. Rather than detailed description, their energy conveys the activity and the immediacy of the bustling summer scene.