Peonies

Peonies from 1902 is among Peploe's early flower paintings that prefigure his celebrated later still lifes. The peony — with its full, loose-petaled head and its associations with opulence and transience — was a favored subject for painters working in the tradition of nineteenth-century French flower painting, and Peploe's treatment shows his awareness of that tradition absorbed through his Paris studies. His early flower paintings are more tentative than the bold, simplified still lifes of his mature Colourist period, but they demonstrate the sensitivity to color and form that would define his later work. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art holds this early example.

Peploe paints the peonies with careful attention to the complex structure of the multi-petaled flower heads. His handling at this early stage is more detailed and less simplified than his mature still lifes, but already shows sensitivity to the relationship between color and light within the petals. The background is treated broadly to focus attention on the flowers' forms.