Maurice Millar, author of ‘The Missing Colourist’, his biography of John Maclauchlan Milne, returns to art-scot with a mine of interesting information which throws open a window onto Scottish artists in the French Riviera of the 1920s. The subject is excitingly huge, and we’re sure this solid, fact-driven approach will stimulate interest and deep-dives into a compelling moment in Scottish art history.

The 1920s were book-ended by the end of World War I and the worldwide economic depression following the ‘Wall Street Crash’ in October 1929.

After 1918, artists looking for new and cheap locations were attracted to France, particularly the Côte d’Azur. The exchange rates between the US dollar and the old French franc, and between the pound sterling and the franc, changed radically during the 1920s from 32 francs per pound in 1919 to a peak of 150 francs per pound in 1926. The devaluation of the franc, in spite of inflation in prices, meant that £20 gained by selling a painting in Scotland in 1920 could be exchanged for 640 francs; this would go a long way in meeting travel and subsistence costs in France. In 1926 the same £20 would produce 3,000 francs.

It wasn’t just artists who sought out post-war France. The American influx to Paris and the Riviera also attracted rich socialites from throughout Europe. Later, St Tropez, Cassis and other coastal villages would become fashionable resorts, but in the early 1920s these places had working harbours with fishing boats and working sailboats.

Map of named locations in paintings by Scottish artists in the south of France in the 1920s

In the early years of the twentieth century French artists were already attracted to the south of France – from Collioure near the Spanish border, to St Paul de Vence by Nice, near the Italian border. They were followed in 1913 by S.J. Peploe and J.D. Fergusson; in 1915 by Roger Fry; in 1920 by Winston Churchill on holiday; and by many others. Some were there for convalescence (Stanley Cursiter and Sir D.Y. Cameron), while others were looking for somewhere new to paint and cheap to live.

Georges Braque, Port of La Ciotat, oil on canvas, 65 x 81cm, 1907

In their two separate memoirs, Willa and Edwin Muir recorded their time together in the south of France from February 1926 to May 1927, at St Tropez and at Menton. Willa Muir wrote: ‘More and more St Tropez was filling up with artists from every quarter, including some from Scotland, and we found ourselves caught up in what Edwin denounced as ‘the excessive gregariousness of artists’’. As Edwin Muir wrote: ‘In the spring we went to the south of France, so that my wife might recover; we had heard of the little town of St Tropez, where the living was cheap.’ And he went on: ‘St Tropez was filled with writers and painters, and a retinue of followers from England, America, France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia; a foreign population with ways of their own, unlike those which they followed in their own countries, and quite unlike those of the St Tropez people.’ 

How did the Scots artists discover the Côte d’Azur? J.D. Fergusson and S.J. Peploe were together in Normandy in 1906, and Fergusson settled in Paris in 1907. He and Peploe painted together again in Royan in 1910 before Peploe and his family also settled in Paris until 1912.

John Duncan Fergusson (7 Mar. 1874, Leith – 30 Jan. 1961, Glasgow)

In 1913, Fergusson had to vacate his studio in Paris, as it was to be demolished. He headed south in search of ‘more sun, more colour’. He was painting in Cassis with Anne Estelle Rice and Peploe that summer. After Cassis, Fergusson settled in a small villa in Cap d’Antibes. He stayed there until war broke out in August 1914, when he moved to London. He returned to the south of France with his partner Margaret Morris at Christmas 1922, moving to Juan-les-Pins, to a villa purchased and renovated for George Davison, a supporter of Margaret Morris’ Dance Summer Schools. Fergusson returned many times until war broke out again in 1939 and he returned to Britain, this time to Glasgow.

The Fergusson Archive (‘the Fergusson Collection’) is held at Perth Art Gallery.

J.D.Fergusson, Cassis, oil on canvas, 61 x 71cm, 1913

Other Cadell paintings from the south of France in 1923 and 1924 include ‘Cassis sur Mer’ (1923), ‘The Harbour, Cassis’, ‘Green Shutters, Cassis’ and ‘Cassis – The Quarry’.

James Paterson, PPRSW, RSA, RWS, (21 August 1854, Blantyre – 25 January 1932, Edinburgh)

‘Glasgow Boy’, James Paterson was a founding member of The Society of Eight in 1912, along with FCB Cadell. He painted in Cagnes, near St Paul de Vence, in 1923. His sketch ‘Cagnes’ is dated 20 October 1923. His ‘La Cagnard’ from Cagnes is dated 1923.

Paterson included ‘Salon, la Camargue, Cagnes’ (no. 21, £40, oil) and ‘December Sunlight, Cagnes’ (no. 23, £80, oil) in the 1925 Society of Eight exhibition at The New Gallery in Edinburgh. The same exhibition included four of his watercolours: three of Cagnes and one ‘St Paul du Var’.

James Paterson, Cagnes, conte on paper, 26 x 19cm, 1923

William MacTaggart, Cassis, oil on board, 48 x 38cm, 1924

Anne Redpath, St Paul de Vence, watercolour, charcoal and coloured chalk, 71 x 91cm.

His many paintings from the south of France include ‘Christmas Time in the South of France’ (1922), ‘Margaret Morris at the Chateau des Enfants’ (1924), and ‘Picnic in Davidson’s Woods, Cap d’Antibes’ (1928).

Guy Peploe, writing about his grandfather, S.J. Peploe, sums up the Scots interest: Peploe “was consciously following in the steps of the French Fauves: since 1905 Matisse, Derain, Marquet and Manguin had all painted in the south. In 1907, Friesz had spent the summer with Braque at La Ciotat, visiting Derain at Cassis and returning in 1910. Not surprisingly, therefore, the Scots were drawn to the Côte d’Azur.” 

Samuel John Peploe (27 Jan. 1871, Edinburgh – 11 Oct. 1935, Edinburgh)

Peploe first visited the Côte d’Azur in 1913 with Fergusson. He returned in 1924 to Cassis with his family and F.C.B. Cadell; and then again with G.L. Hunter to Antibes in 1928.

Peploe was initially reluctant to leave Paris to join Fergusson in 1913, believing it could be too hot for his young son, but he and his family did join them before subsequently returning to Edinburgh. They were together in Cassis and Peploe’s painting of the fishing town (1913) is in the collection of The Hunterian, University of Glasgow. 

‘Square, Cassis’ (1913), ‘In Port, Cassis, France’ and ‘Schooner, Cassis Harbour’ (1913) are in private collections. Amongst the 205 of Peploe’s oil paintings in public collections are ‘Cassis’ (1913), ‘Landscape at Cassis’ (1924), ‘Trees at Cassis’ (c.1925), ‘The Pink House, Cassis’ (1928) and ‘Palm Trees, Antibes’ (1928)

S.J. Peploe, A Street in Cassis, oil on panel, 41 x 33cm, 1913

Duncan Grant, View of St Tropez, oil on canvas, 65 x 53cm, c.1921

F.C.B. Cadell, The Port, Cassis, oil on panel, 44 x 36cm, 1923

Roger Fry (14 December 1866, London – 9 September 1934, London) arrived on the Côte d’Azur in May 1915. He was on holiday, having been invited to Roquebrune by artist Simon Bussy and his wife, novelist Dorothy Strachey.

Fry’s 1915 painting ‘A Provençal Harbour,’ is in the collection at the Kelvingrove. He was painting in Cagnes with Jean Marchand in 1919. He went to La Ciotat, near Cassis, for the first time in October 1923. As a core member of the Bloomsbury Group, he promoted France as a source of artistic inspiration and others followed, including Duncan Grant.

Duncan Grant (21 Jan. 1885, Rothiemurchus - 8 May 1978, Aldermaston)

Duncan Grant, with Vanessa Bell and her children, first arrived in St Tropez in October 1921. They rented ‘La Maison Blanche’ until January 1922. As part of the ‘Bloomsbury on the Mediterranean’ set, Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry all returned to the Cote d’Azur in following years. Duncan Grant joined his aunt Miss Daisy McNeil at her rented villa in Cassis (‘Les Mimosas’) in January 1927. Vanessa Bell arrived soon afterwards, and they stayed nearby in the ‘Villa Corsica’. Having decided that Cassis was their preferred area, they later took a 10-year lease on a small cottage, La Bergère, on the Fontcreuse estate of a retired British cavalry officer, Colonel Peter Teed. After renovations were completed late in 1927, they made their first visit early in 1928.

For several years Duncan Grant, with Vanessa Bell, enjoyed periods of six weeks to two or three months at La Bergère. Their last visit was in 1938.

Frances Campbell Boileau Cadell (12 Apr. 1883, Edinburgh – 6 Dec. 1937, Edinburgh)

‘Bunty’ Cadell first visited the south of France in 1923 and, at Peploe’s suggestion, he stayed at the Hotel Panorama in Cassis. He returned with Peploe and his family in April 1924. Cadell’s paintings from Cassis received critical acclaim in Edinburgh, but were not a commercial success at that time.

Stanley Cursiter (29 April 1887, Kirkwall – 22 April 1976, Stromness)

Stanley Cursiter saw war-time service with the 1st Battalion, Scottish Rifles, on the Somme in October 1916. He contracted bronchitis and spent time convalescing in South Africa and at Menton in the south of France. Later, based on his knowledge of lithography, he was appointed to the 4th Field Survey Battalion as a mapmaker. After the war Cursiter was recommended to go to warmer climate in order to recover from his asthma and bronchitis. In late 1919, he set off to the Riviera with his wife on a six-month trip. In his autobiography ‘Looking Back’, he remembered ‘I worked and painted my way from Cassis, near Marseilles, to Menton at the other end of the Riviera.’ 

Stanley Cursiter later became Director of the National Galleries of Scotland in 1930.

Stanley Cursiter, The Riviera near Cassis, watercolour on paper, 24 x 35cm

Other Cursiter paintings from the south of France include ‘Villefranche’, ‘The ‘Little Harbour, Cassis’ and ‘Cassis – Evening’, all from 1920.

Sir David Young Cameron RA RSA HRSW RE (28 June 1865, Glasgow – 16 Sept. 1945, Perth)

Sir David Young Cameron trained at Glasgow School of Art and then Edinburgh School of Art in the 1880s. He developed an international reputation in the 1890s as an etcher but later concentrated on painting landscapes. He was elected RSA in 1918 and RA in 1920. He suffered a serious heart attack in August 1921, and, after initial recovery, he and his wife travelled to the south of France and stayed for several weeks at Valescure, near St Raphael, between St Tropez and Cannes.

The Camerons returned to the south of France in March 1926 staying in Nice. They visited Cap Ferrat, Monte Carlo and various villages including St Paul de Vence.

D.Y. Cameron, La Rue Annette, oil on canvas, 67 x 42.5cm, c. 1922

William MacTaggart (15 May 1903, Loanhead – 9 January 1981, Edinburgh)

Sir William MacTaggart, FRSE, RA, PPRSA attended Edinburgh College of Art from 1918 to 1921 as a part-time student. Of delicate health, he made several winter trips to France. His first trip to the south of France was to Cannes in 1923. He held his first solo exhibition in the church hall of St Andrew’s Scottish Church in Cannes at the end of this first trip in 1924. In subsequent years he was sometimes accompanied by William Crozier, with whom he shared a studio at 45 Frederick Street in Edinburgh. After Anne Redpath, her husband, Jim Michie and family moved from St Omer to St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat in 1925, both MacTaggart and Crozier visited them there.

MacTaggart’s oil painting ‘Cassis’ was exhibited in an exhibition of ‘The 1922 Group’ in Edinburgh; it carries a hand-written label verso with the date amended to read 1924. His ‘Cannes from the Beau Lieu’ is also dated 1924.

Other MacTaggart paintings from the 1920s include ‘La Croisette, Cannes’ (1923), ‘Cork Oaks, Le Cannet’ (1923), ‘Bormes les Mimosa’ (1926) and ’Old Chateau, Grimaud’ (1928).

William Crozier (2 June 1893, Edinburgh – 19 December 1930, Edinburgh)

William Crozier ARSA was a contemporary of William MacTaggart and a fellow member of ‘The 1922 Group’ in Edinburgh. He attended Edinburgh College of Art and the RSA Life Class. He secured a travel scholarship which enabled him to visit Paris and Florence in 1924. Later he visited Anne Redpath and Jim Michie at St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and painted in St Raphael, Bormes-les-Mimosas and Fréjus. His works include ‘Fréjus’ (c.1925/6) ‘Vineyards near St Raphael’ (c.1928), ‘The Woods – St Raphael’ (c.1929), ‘Old Church, Bormes’ (c.1928).

A sufferer of haemophilia, he had a fatal fall in December 1930 in the Frederick Street studio in Edinburgh, which he shared with William MacTaggart.

William Crozier, Bormes, oil on board, 36 x 46cm

Bormes-les-Mimosas is two kilometres inland from the coast and lies between St Tropez and Cassis. Grimaud is about seven kilometres west of St Tropez.

Rudolph Ihlee (1883-1968) was an apprentice engineer before studying at the Slade School of Fine Arts in 1906-10 and then had solo exhibitions at the Carfax Gallery and Leicester Galleries in London before leaving London for Collioure in the Pyrénées-Orientales, near the Spanish border. He lived there from 1922 to 1940. He was a friend of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and he encouraged Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald to leave London for Collioure, which they did in 1923.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868, Glasgow – 10 Dec 1928, London)

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (CRM) and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (MMM) are now recognised as visionary, leading artists of their day, but CRM’s career as an architect in Glasgow suffered a downturn after 1909. In 1914, the couple left Glasgow for Suffolk, then London. He failed to re-establish himself as an architect of major projects, completing only minor works, but he had some success in producing commercial textile designs. In the summer of 1923, the couple decided to leave England for France to find artistic motivation and cheaper living costs, encouraged by their friends.

They spent the years 1923 to 1927 in the French Pyrénées-Orientales (Fetges, Bouleternère, Palada) and the Roussillon coast (Amélie les Bains, Ille sur Têt, Mont-louis, Collioure and Port-Vendres). Margaret seems to have given up painting by then, but Mackintosh focussed on watercolour landscapes and flowers. The known records of their time are based on the long letters which ‘Toshie’ wrote to Margaret when each had returned separately to London for medical treatment.

L’Association CRM en Roussillon promotes interest in CRM and MMM in France. A detailed study of the locations of CRM’s paintings is set out in ‘On the Trail of Monsieur Mackintosh’.

Bouleternère, Occitanie is 25km west of Perpignan.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Bouleternère, watercolours and pencil on paper, 44 x 44cm

John Maclauchlan Milne, RSA (12 Aug. 1885, Buckhaven – 28 Oct. 1957, Greenock)

John Maclauchlan Milne’s first visit to the south of France was in 1924, to Cassis and St Tropez. He returned several times throughout the 1920s and his named paintings range along the Côte d’Azur from L’Estaque, west of Marseille, to St Paul de Vence, near Nice. He was supported during this time by art collectors in Dundee, mainly William Boyd and Matthew Justice.

Maclauchlan Milne’s paintings from Provence featured in his solo exhibitions with art dealers Reid & Lefèvre in Glasgow in September 1927 (‘Ramatuelle’, ‘Jardin, St Tropez’, ‘Cote d’Azur’, ‘Route de Fréjus’, ‘Port de St Raphael’) and March 1929 (‘Landscape near L’Estaque’, ‘Street in St Tropez’, ‘Street of the Four Winds’).

John Maclauchlan Milne, Red Roofs, Cassis, oil on canvas, 58 x 71cm, 1924

For more on Maclauchlan Milne, see art-scot issue 4: “John Maclauchlan Milne: Colourist”

Anne Redpath OBE, ARA (29 March 1895, Galashiels – 7 January 1965, Edinburgh)

Anne Redpath married in 1920 and moved to St Omer in northern France (1920 – 1925). Her husband, Jim Michie, joined the War Graves Commission, designing cemeteries and war memorials. In 1925 they moved to St Jean, Cap Ferrat, between Nice and Monte Carlo, and Michie was appointed to the position of private architect to an American millionaire.

The family lived in the south of France until 1934, with Anne Redpath and her three boys returning to Scotland following the bankruptcy of Jim Michie’s employer. Her output of paintings at that time was not prolific, but she had a solo exhibition of her work at the casino in St Raphael in 1928. Later some of her paintings from the south of France were shown at exhibitions of the Society of Scottish Artists in Edinburgh. Her other paintings from the south of France include ‘Chambery’ (c.1925), ‘Sea at Villefranche’ (c.1928) and ‘St Raphael’ (c.1930).

Robert Harold Morton (13 March 1892, Stirling – 1965)

R.H. Morton visited Cassis in 1925. He had trained at Glasgow School of Art (1908 – 1911), later serving in The Artists Rifles during WW1. He also trained at Edinburgh School of Art from 1920 to 1924.

There are 36 works by Morton in public collections. Seven of these are from Cassis (six are charcoal drawings, each dated 1925). These are in the collection of The Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum. He exhibited ‘Above Cassis’ at the RSA summer exhibition in 1927.

R.H. Morton, Landscape near Cassis, oil on canvas, 76 x 63cm

James McIntosh Patrick (4 February 1907, Dundee – 7 April 1998, Dundee)

James McIntosh Patrick was in the south of France in the summer of 1926 while he was a student at Glasgow School of Art. He visited Carcassonne, Les Baux, Nimes and Avignon and other spots.

The main output from this trip was a set of etchings and several of these works of Provence (and also some Scottish landscapes) were published giving Patrick an income which subsidised the remainder of his time as a student at the GSA. His oil of ‘Les Baux’ was shown at the Royal Academy in 1928. The demand for etchings had faded by the late-1920s, so he re-visited his sketches of 1926 in later years and used these as the basis for paintings.

Les Baux (-de-Provence) is 25km due south of Avignon.

James McIntosh Patrick, Carcassonne, watercolour on paper, 30.5 x 25cm, 1926

George Leslie Hunter (7 Aug. 1877, Rothesay – 6 Nov. 1931, Glasgow)

It is not confirmed, but Leslie Hunter probably first travelled to the south of France in the early spring of 1927. In a letter from L’Auberge de la Colombe d’Or in St Paul de Vence, Hunter wrote to Matthew Justice in Dundee ‘I like this country very much and am sorry I did not come here six years ago in place of going to Fife.’

By then his fellow Colourists, Peploe, Cadell and Fergusson and his friend Maclauchlan Milne had all been painting there. In another letter of September 1927 to McNeill Reid of art dealers Reid & Levèfre in Glasgow, Hunter says: ‘I know the coast now between Monte Carlo and Cassis and have made about 100 drawings in colour’

In 1928, Hunter was again painting in the south of France, including time with Peploe at Antibes. After a trip to the USA, Hunter returned to paint in Provence in July 1929 for the last time. After taking ill in September 1929, he was brought back to Scotland to recuperate.

Hunter’s paintings from the south of France include ‘The Bay, Juan-les-Pins’, ‘The Café, Cassis’, ‘Street in Vence’, ‘Provencal Landscape’, ‘Toulon’, ‘Marseilles’, ‘St Paul from the Colombe d’Or’.

George Leslie Hunter, Environs of Vence, oil on board, 69 x 56cm.

James McBey, Street of the Arches, Villefranche, ink and watercolour on paper, 39 x 27cm, 1927

James McBey (23 Dec. 1883, Newburgh, Aberdeenshire – 1 Dec. 1959, Tangiers, Morocco)

James McBey was born in poverty and, following work in a local bank, he developed his skill initially as an etcher. He enjoyed early success and travelled widely in Europe and North Africa before WW1. As an appointed war artist in 1917, he accompanied the British Expeditionary Force in Egypt and recorded the army’s progress through Palestine and Syria. He produced many portraits of military leaders.

His wartime etchings were published in the early 1920s, and he achieved further success in the booming market for prints. In February 1927 he visited the south of France and produced a number of watercolours in Villefranche-sur-Mer, between Nice and Monaco.

He made a further visit to the south of France in March 1932 and produced watercolours of Collioure and Les Baux.

The End of the Affair

The love affair of the Scottish artists with the south of France was upset following the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and the subsequent widespread economic recession. This had a major impact on the wealth and income of art collectors and consequently on the lives of some of the professional artists who relied on that market demand for their work.

For many of these Scots artists, this marked the end of their continental trips. Peploe made his last trip to France, to Cassis, in 1930. Maclauchlan Milne travelled to Tuscany, then Provence in 1931 as his final continental trip. Charles Rennie Mackintosh died in December 1928 and Leslie Hunter died in December 1931.

In contrast, Fergusson relocated from London to Paris in 1929 and continued to make frequent summer trips to the south of France throughout the 1930s, before settling in Glasgow in 1939.

1930 marked the end of a productive period in the south of France for most of these Scottish artists, although others would follow in later years. Peploe, Cadell, Patrick and Milne focussed on Scotland in subsequent years. McBey travelled widely, became an American citizen, and later settled in Tangiers.

Their work of the period is spread across public and private collections and frequently appears in auctions of Scottish art.

Maurice Millar

Maurice’s book on John Maclauchlan Milne, The Missing Colourist, is available from www.themissingcolourist.co.uk