EDINBURGH.- The Terrace, Cassis, a work by the Scottish Colourist painter Samuel Peploe, is to be offered at Bonhams Scottish Art sale in Edinburgh on Wednesday 26 April. It is estimated at £60,000-80,000.

The Terrace, Cassis was painted in 1913 during a working holiday in Cassis, a resort in the South of France, 20 kilometres to the east of Marseille. Peploe and his family had joined fellow Colourist J.D Fergusson, the first of the group to discover the village which was also popular with French artists such as Francis Picabia.

The work shows a sun-drenched terrace behind which houses sprawl out against the hills above the port. Peploe executed many views of Cassis during this visit, and they are now much sought after by collectors. Cassis (Rooftops), for example, sold at Bonhams in April 2016 for £92,500, while a depiction of the harbour at Cassis crowded with yachts and working boats sold for £79,300 in October 2016.

Bonhams Head of Scottish Art, Chris Brickley, said,”French painting was a crucial influence on Peploe who like the other Colourists – Fergusson, Francis Cadell and George Hunter – had trained in Paris. 1913 was the last year he was able to travel south to take inspiration from the light and the landscape before the outbreak of the First World War. At that time he was still absorbing the influence of Matisse, but moving towards a more geometric, abstract style which The Terrace, Cassis perfectly illustrates. By 1918 his work was beginning to take a new direction and the paintings from the pre-war Cassis period are highly valued.”