F.C.B. Cadell and Shambellie House
Unique to Shambellie House – a series of workshops have been developed celebrating the artistic mastery of F.C.B. Cadell and celebrating his special relationship with Shambellie House and the Stewart Family. Ailsa Mackay delivered our first workshops with a very special weekend on the 3/4th August ‘Capturing Perspectives and Colours in Landscape: Painting in the Style of Scottish Colourist F. C. B. Cadell’ which received 5* reviews from all the participants.
Workshops as part of our Shambellie House exclusive ‘ A Scottish Colourist Series – F. C. B. Cadell with Ailsa Mackay’ are now available for booking in 2025:
- Still Life 8th & 9th February 2025
- Figure Painting 5th & 6th April 2025
- Painting Interiors October 2025 tbc
- Perspectives and Landscapes 9th&10th August
- Seascapes Date 7th & 8th June 2025
Read on for the story of Cadell’s links to Shambellie House told by Chair of Shambellie House, John Stewart.
From ‘Cadell – A Scottish Colourist’ by Tom Hewlett (In italics)
“Francis Campbell Boileau ‘Bunty’ Cadell was born on April 12th 1883.
He was christened Francis (after his father), but quickly became known as ‘Bunty’, a particularly Scottish nickname suggesting slightly mischievous but endearing qualities.
His early experience at art school in Edinburgh did not provide him with the inspiration that he sought. Aware of the breadth of vision in artistic circles in France generally, and Paris in particular, Arthur Melville (a leading light of the Glasgow School), suggested that young Cadell should study there. In 1899, at the age of 16, Bunty travelled to Paris with his mother and sister to begin three years of training at Academie Julien and some of the other most respected studios in Paris.
“Before moving to Munich with his family late in 1906, Bunty found it difficult to derive any meaningful income from his painting. He was based at the family home in Edinburgh but made regular trips out of town to stay with friends, particularly in Dumfries & Galloway. One of his favourite haunts was Shambellie House, then home of the Stewart family. Bunty’s introduction to the house was made through a young Edinburgh friend, the legal student, C. E. (Ted) Stewart whose father, William owned the estate.
Cadell in the middle, Ted Stewart on the right and Ted’s cousin Andrew McCulloch on the left.
Bunty’s friendship with Ted Stewart was to last his lifetime; Ted was a regular patron of Bunty from an early stage and acquired his first paining, a watercolour entitled ‘Sweetheart Abbey, in 1907.
Ted also became the secretary of the Society of Eight when it was founded in 1912, and executor of Bunty’s estate in 1938.”
“Bunty treated Shambellie very much as a second home. He returned frequently to stay with the family, being affectionately known as ‘Uncle Bunty’ by the young Stewarts and their friends who met him there. This was indicative of the special rapport that he instantly seemed to create with children. Although he never married, he was able to establish an unusual camaraderie and loyalty with the youngsters that he met; they were enchanted by him and his marvellous ability to make life fun.”
From 1903, members of the Stewart’s wider family bought paintings from Bunty. If Bunty was struggling financially, the word would go round the family to buy paintings to support him.
A letter from one of Ted’s older brothers, Wat, to their mother in 1905 ‘I am glad to hear that Bunty is behaving better and seems to be afraid of you. He needs to be kept steady by someone.’
Bunty stayed for some time at Shambellie in 1908, after Cadell’s family returned to Scotland following the unexpected death of his mother in Germany. His paintings acquired by the family at this time included some of the family dogs, including McGinty, Hum the pug and Ted’s gun dog, Mr Price.
Bunty was turned down by the army board, seemingly due to unfitness due to his pipe smoking. He came to New Abbey and worked at Kirkconnell House, in a successful attempt to improve his fitness to become fit enough to enlist. He went to war on the Western Front late in 1915.
Bunty rented this house in 1920 and 1921 – for £20 a year, and would stay there after that when Ted took it over.
Bunty was Ted Stewart’s Best Man at his marriage to Nan Ivory in 1916.
On one visit in the twenties, Bunty wrote a rather derogatory poem about the house and its occupants. He got the children to learn the verses to recite them to the adults at dinner.
It finishes with:
‘Moral – Avoid this mansion strange
However much you need a change
Its full of pestilence and mange
A Bloated Grange’
I gather that, even after this poem, Bunty was always a welcome visitor to Shambellie House.
Text supplied by John Stewart July 2024
