Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell was one of the leading Scottish artists of his generation, today renowned alongside his contemporaries John Duncan Fergusson, George Leslie Hunter and Samuel John Peploe as the ‘Scottish Colourists’ – a group whose dynamic compositions, bold use of colour and European connections placed them at the forefront of avant-garde painting not just in Scotland but Britain more widely in the early 20th century.

Cadell was born in Edinburgh in 1883 and from an early age showed a precocious artistic talent. Moving to Paris aged 16 he enrolled at the Académie Julian and later at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich giving him a broad European training. He developed a bright palette, spontaneous and vigorous application of paint and a lifelong fascination with reflections, which we see to great bravura in the present work.

The location is 130 George Street in Edinburgh, Cadell’s sizeable studio in an Edwardian townhouse, which he purposefully set about decorating with the care of a man who regarded the studio as a picture in itself. The work relates to a series of paintings he made in the pre-War years which are readable as exercises in the decorum of the interior: Afternoon (1913, private collection), in which three women take tea, The Black Hat (1914, City Art Centre, Edinburgh Museums and Galleries), in which Miss Bertia Don Wauchope stands before the mantelshelf or Interior with Figure (1914-15, Manchester Art Gallery). These works, with which he began to define a distinctively Scottish pictorial modernity, firmly established Cadell’s reputation.

Distinctive in the present painting is the absence of a figure, with the focus on the studio as a as a means for vibrant expression. Rather than depict the walls in lilac that is the common trend in his studio interiors, he has used Prussian blue to set a bold tone. Across a shimmering floor that Cadell had painted black, a small, upholstered armchair sits with a vibrant red cushion that forms the heart of the composition. On an easel behind is a tall cheval mirror that is a recurring device within the interior paintings, allowing him to further explore reflections. To its left hangs a small still life with a delectable flash of orange.

Cadell explores light and colour elsewhere, from the ‘tureen’ below the still life; across the mantlepiece, on which is the suggestion of another of Cadell’s interiors with a fashionable lady; and from the chandelier above. In the foreground, a table dynamically cuts across the central space on which citrus fruit are accented – their diagonal placement again leading the eye to the red cushion at the centre of the composition.

Cadell’s painterly approach was rooted in Impressionism - he greatly admired the work of Edouard Manet, adopting his same use of colour and stage setting to his own ends in his interior works. Only two years before the present work, Roger Fry had in 1911 and 1912 brought the work of the Impressionists to British audiences with his Manet and the Post-Impressionists and Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition, both staged at the Grafton Galleries in London. Met with controversy among conservative circles, Cadell - already familiar with these artists from his direct experiences as a young man in Paris - wilfully took up their cause. Cadell also admired the work of John Lavery, John Singer Sargent and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. This is notable in the interior paintings that feature a model, such as Reflection (sold Sotheby’s, 29 June 2022, lot 26), which echoes Whistler’s Symphony in White No.2: The Little White Girl of 1864 (Tate).

The outbreak of World War I brought an end to this interior series; Cadell joined the 9th Royal Scots and was then commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, serving on the French front. Upon returning from service, Cadell moved to a new studio, 6 Ainslie Place, in Edinburgh’s New Town, from which point his painting technique evolved: the paint application became much tighter, forms simplified and bold colours juxtaposed, aligning with the growing trend for Art Deco and defining a new period of his artistic career.

Studio Interior, 130 George Street stands as a superb example within the short but celebrated pre-War interior series – a dynamic and free-spirted interior that leaves no doubt for the viewer as to the elegance of Cadell’s studio and his prowess as a painter. It was upon these works that Cadell announced his place within the artistic avant-garde and from which his career and reputation flourished.