Florence St John Cadell

Scottish 1877 – 1966

Born in Australia in 1877, Florence St John Cadell was a distant cousin of Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell RSA was a Scottish Colourist painter, renowned for his depictions of the elegant New Town interiors of his native Edinburgh. She and her family relocated to Edinburgh while very young. St John Cadell was the middle of three daughters, and at an early age she and her elder sister, Agnes Morison Cadell (1873-1958) began painting seriously. The sisters initially specialised in animal studies, particularly goats. She began exhibiting in Edinburgh and Perth in the 1920s, and later came to specialise in sun filled landscapes and market scenes.

In the 1930s, she and her sister Agnes rebuilt Whinmill Brae House, on the Water of Leith, which they redesigned around a large studio. The two sisters subsequently went to live and paint at Crail, a picturesque fishing village in the East Neuk of Fife, by the entrance to the Firth of Forth. She exhibited regularly with the Scottish Society of Women Artists, and at the Royal Scottish Academy between 1900 and 1965, one of the few artists whose output increased with age. She painted mainly children and animals but later turned to landscapes, particularly of the Kintail area.

She died in 1966, aged 89.

Exhibited at the Royal Society of Artists, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts Aberdeen Artists’ Society 1933-1937 and Alpine Club Gallery.