A century after the first British exhibition of the Scottish Colourists – Samuel John Peploe, John Duncan Fergusson, George Leslie Hunter and Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell – their resounding legacy is celebrated in the Fleming Collection and Dovecot Studio's exhibition 'The Scottish Colourists: Radical Perspectives'. Now widely recognised as modern masters whose work has inspired countless others, their path to recognition was bolstered by immersing themselves in experimental environments and surrounding themselves with like-minded creatives.

In 1905 at Paris' Salon d'Automne, the art world was once again set on fire. The annual exhibition had been established two years earlier as a safe haven to display experimental artwork after decades of warring between tradition 'academic' and avant-garde art. However, Henri Matisse's Woman with a Hat and André Derain's portrait of Matisse – with their patchworks of bright, unnatural, colours, creating a flat and almost childlike appearance – were difficult for the salon's jury to stomach. A critic dubbed their style fauves or 'wild beasts', and the name has stuck.

While Matisse and Derain divided opinion as to whether their new works were worthy of display, they awakened something in the young Scottish artists Samuel John Peploe and John Duncan Fergusson, who were just beginning to find their artistic feet. They had found inspiration in the American artists John Singer Sargent and James Abbott McNeill Whistler, whose lush brushwork and experiments with tone drew attention away from the subjects of their paintings and refocused it on to formal qualities such as line, colour and tone.

This influence is perhaps most apparent in Peploe's Lady in a White Dress, in which the form of a woman becomes discernible amongst long brushstrokes in a variety of greys and whites. Although much looser than one of Whistler's Symphonies in White, the prevailing influence of Whistler's philosophy remains. In fact, the brushstrokes are more akin to Matisse and Derain's work at the time, showing the radical artists' influence.

Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl

Both Fergusson and Peploe were paying regular visits to France to be more connected to the fast-paced art scene, before eventually moving there at the end of the decade. While the Scots fully immersed themselves in their new home – speaking French, exhibiting regularly and eventually even becoming Sociétaires in the Salon d'Automne – they became part of a small, artistic Anglo-American circle. This assembly of like-minded creatives, inspired by the Fauve movement, became known as the Rhythmists, named after the coinciding magazine Rhythm in which the group began publishing their artwork and ideas.

This hive of creative activity spurred on by the Fauve movement is evident in works such as Fergusson's Blue Nude and Anne Estelle Rice's Seascape with Sailing Boats. Rice was one of the eminent members of the Rhythm Group and her close relationship with Fergusson is noticeable in both artists' paintings in this period.

In Rice's composition, she evokes the warm seaside atmosphere with her muted palette of soft blues and greens, applied thickly by brush and knife. In stark contrast to these tones are the sails of several ships, in primary colours of deep reds, blues and yellow, that she represents skimming through the serene waters.

The colour blocking of primary hues is similar to Derain's painting The Pool of London, where the artist depicts the bustling watercrafts of the Thames.

Likewise, comparisons can be drawn between the simplified figure in Blue Nude and many of the nude silhouettes that Matisse painted, printed and drew throughout his career. As many artists before them, the Rhythmists found inspiration from radical contemporary artists, and 'tried on' their style as part of the journey to find their own.

While Peploe and Fergusson were busy discovering their style in Paris, two younger Scots were also paying visits to the city, and equally under the spell of the Fauves. Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell moved to Paris at the age of 16 to study art and was still resident when Matisse and Derain turned heads at the Salon d'Automne. Originally trained as an illustrator, Leslie Hunter was also inspired by the two radical artists on his occasional visits to Paris, resulting in his normally tight drawings transforming into looser compositions.

This free handling of paint is apparent in Hunter's Still Life with White Jug. Though the brushwork is loose and bold, the composition of fruit on silver and ceramic platters in deep hues demonstrates Hunter's interest in seventeenth-century Dutch still lives.

By contrast, Cadell's light and airy still life Carnations displays a sun-drenched corner of his studio. His soft touches of wide brushstrokes evoke the lasting influence of Whistler and Edouard Manet, however the simplistic composition is thoroughly modern.

After a quiet creative period, enforced by the First World War, the four Colourists would finally be united as a quartet. They were unified first through friendship and common interests by the affable Peploe, who had a reputation for bringing people together.

Soon after, it was the Glaswegian father-son dealers, Alexander Reid and A. J. McNeill Reid, who united them professionally. In 1924 the Reids secured an exhibition for Peploe, Fergusson, Cadell and Hunter at Galerie Barbazanges in Paris entitled 'Les Peintres de l'Ecosse Moderne', or 'The Modern Scottish Painters'. It is fitting that the city that proved so inspirational for the Colourists would house their first exhibition. The following year, they were finally recognised for their visionary talents in Britain at an exhibition at London's Leicester Galleries.

Though always prone to experimenting, the four artists had developed their distinctive styles, which played with the delicate relationship between colour and tone. Fergusson's The Drift Posts and Hunter's Ceres, Fife show a more playful use of paint, whereas Peploe's distinctive outlining and Cadell's soft touch can be seen in Green Sea, Iona and Ben More in Mull, respectively. The pervading influence of the Fauves is now more subtle rather than profound.

'The Scottish Colourists: Radical Perspectives' is on show at Dovecot Studios until 28th June 2025, which for the first time showcases the Scottish Colourists in the context of their European contemporaries. The exhibition interrogates how this international generation of radical painters forged a new language of colour in the early twentieth century. Often exhibited as a quartet, their work will now be shown in the company of key figures such as Matisse and Derain, as well as the Bloomsbury Group's Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant.

Heather Carroll, art historian and Exhibitions Manager & Curator at Dovecot Studios