â—† FRANCIS CAMPBELL BOILEAU CADELL R.S.A., R.S.W. (SCOTTISH 1883-1937) IONA, EAST BAY - THE LITTLE Signed, signed, titled and inscribed verso, oil on board

(38cm x 45cm (15in x 17.75in))

Provenance: Given by the artist to Miss Jessie Service and thence by descent Sotheby's Gleneagles, 5 September 2001, lot 1385, from where acquired by the present owner

This idyllic sun-lit scene shows a view of the White Strand at the north-east of Iona, which was one of the artist's favourite places to work. Looking north, we can see Cows Rock, the Strait of Storm between Iona and the small island of Eilean Annraidh and beyond to Mull. Cadell revels in the textures and weathering of the exposed and seaweed-strewn rocks in the foreground, which emerge from the pure white sand for which Iona is celebrated. The eye is led along the curve of the bay and across the sea in which Cadell captures tones of turquoise and emerald depending on the depth of the water. His preferred high horizon is crowned by a sky which hints at the fast-changing Hebridean weather, about which Philip MacLeod Coupe has explained: 'The low-lying terrain of Iona is often bathed in bright sunshine when the weather is stormy over the high mountains of Mull...In these conditions the colour of the sea is generated by sunlight reflected from the white sandy base of the shallow waters of the Sound and is independent of the dark sky. This effect is surprising and very beautiful.' (Philip MacLeod Coupe, Paintings of Iona: Cadell and Peploe, privately published, Malvern, 2014, p.79). Cadell gave this painting to Miss Jessie Service, a sister of his great patron, the ship-owner George W. Service, who summered with his family on Iona. The men met during Cadell's first visit to the island in 1912, with Service eventually acquiring some 150 of his works and donning 'his tartan dress jacket for the big night when he had his annual buying spree' (as related by Jessica Christian and Charles Stiller, Iona Portrayed: The Island through Artists' Eyes 1760-1960, The New Iona Press, Inverness, p. 62). Jessie herself came to purchase paintings by Cadell and appears in his 'Register of Pictures', which he maintained between 1907 and 1930 to record works which he sold or gave away. The entries numbered 49 to 51 in October 1924 are described as '3 Oils 18" x 15" Iona (£25 each) £75 Miss Jessie G. Service, 11 Kensington Gate, Kelvinside, Glasgow' (the register is on loan to the National Galleries of Scotland from a private collection).