A painting by Scottish Colourist Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, entitled Reflections and described as a work of refined elegance, is expected to fetch up to £500,000 when it goes on sale at Sotheby's in London next Thursday.
The setting for the work is the stylish drawing room of 130 George Street, the artist's Edinburgh home and studio. Reflections is part of a series of pictures painted by Cadell between 1913, when he moved to George Street, and 1915, when he was sent to serve on the French front.
The studio's stark, modern colour scheme of white-painted walls and floor painted glossy black was a feature of the dramatic and glamorous modernism of Cadell's art in his pre-war period.
Grant Ford, head of Sotheby's British and Irish paintings department, said: "This is the grandest Cadell we have handled since selling Afternoon at Gleneagles in 1988. Both pictures, being the same size and from the same period, reflect Cadell at the height of his powers, painting with great confidence, and promoting wonderful high society subjects and beautiful interiors."
The colour scheme of whites and greyish-mauve, the application of paint in rapid strokes – which imparts a shimmering quality to the image – and the artistic conceit of displaying two aspects of a woman's beauty by showing her reflection in a mirror are said to converge to produce a masterpiece in Cadell's oeuvre.
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