Landscape, South of France - Samuel Peploe

A bold, Post-Impressionist view of a French hillside village by Scottish Colourist Samuel Peploe, featuring expressive brushwork and a bright, Mediterranean palette.

Samuel Peploe, a member of the Scottish Colourists, produced this work during his travels in the south of France. The painting captures a hillside village overlooking the Mediterranean, rendered with the bold, expressive brushwork that defined his later career. Peploe moved away from the darker, tonal palettes of his early training in Paris, adopting a brighter, more experimental approach to colour theory.

The composition is structured around the interplay of light and shadow across the Mediterranean terrain. Peploe uses deep blues and purples to define the shadows of the olive trees and the distant hills, which contrast with the warm, terracotta tones of the village rooftops. The application of paint is thick and deliberate, with visible brushstrokes that build the form of the buildings and the surrounding vegetation. Rather than seeking photographic accuracy, the artist prioritises the emotional and visual impact of the scene through simplified shapes and a high-contrast palette.

This work reflects the influence of French modernism on Peploe, particularly the techniques of Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne. The artist balances the structural elements of the architecture with the organic, flowing forms of the trees. By flattening the perspective, he draws the viewer into the rhythm of the scene. The sky is rendered in broad, sweeping strokes, providing a sense of atmosphere that unites the various elements of the composition. This piece is representative of the period when Peploe fully embraced the potential of colour to convey the heat and light of the French coast, moving beyond mere representation to create a cohesive, painterly vision of the Mediterranean environment.