Bloomsbury-on-Mediterrané | FCB Cadell in Cassis

F.C.B. Cadell (1883-1937) Cassis Sur Mer. Oil on panel, 38 x 46 cm, courtesy of Portland Gallery

FCB Cadell (pronounced to rhyme with ‘Paddle’) is often referred to as the ‘most Scottish’ of the four Scottish colourists, as much of his work depicted the interior of his sumptuous studio at Ainslie Place in the Georgian New Town of Edinburgh, or the landscape of the Inner Hebridean island of Iona, where he used to spend every summer. He often sported a kilt, in the Campbell tartan, albeit set off with a yellow waistcoat.

Yet Cadell was half French, and fluent in the language: and as a teenager he spent four years studying at the Academie Julian in Paris, where he was much influenced by the Fauvists and the mature Impressionists. And ‘Bunty’, as he was known by friends, is known to have visited the town of Cassis, near Marseilles in the South of France, on at least two occasions, in 1923, and 1924 (the latter occasion staying with his great friend and colleague Samuel Peploe).

Cassis was in that period something of an artists’ colony, much beloved by British painters, including Peploe (who ‘discovered’ the town in 1911), fellow Colourist John Duncan Fergusson, Duncan Grant, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell, who dubbed it ‘Bloomsbury-on-Mediterrané’. Winston Churchill visited in 1920, painting an impressionistic seascape, Daybreak at Cassis.

The above oil painting, Cassis-Sur-Mer, 1923, was painted by Cadell on his first visit to the fishing port, one of a series of similarly styled, jazzily modern works depicting the brightly coloured houses on the waterfront, and the rolling hills behind the town. There’s a nod to Cezanne – in the limited palette, the areas of flat colour, and the geometrical angularity of the buildings and plants – which is typical of his Cassis landscapes.

The painting was bought in the same year, back in Edinburgh by collector Jane Rough, and has recently been acquired by Portland Gallery. It is earmarked for display in British Art Fair 2023. There are two Cadell works currently available to view on request at the gallery’s exhibition, Modern British Art, Works on Paper.

Despite describing his hobbies in Who’s Who as ‘Bed and Billiards’ Cadell was a gregarious bon vivant, whose wealth and health deteriorated as his reputation grew. Photographs of the artist generally include a pipe lodged between his lips. He died sadly early – aged 54 – in Edinburgh, of liver disease. Cadell remains best known in his native country, particularly following a 2011 retrospective of his work at the National Galleries of Scotland, curated by Alice Strang. But his reputation is steadily growing south of the border, and beyond: in 2018 the Cadell painting Reflection sold for £874,000 in Sotheby’s, London.