Book excerpt: A comprehensive, lavishly illustrated new biography of Scotland's favourite artist is long overdue. Guy Peploe is in a unique postion to bring it to us. As a grandson of the artist he has had access to family archive material which yields an insight into the life of a complex and brilliant artist. In 1985 he curated the extensive Peploe exhibition, opened by Her Majesty the Queen, which inaugurated the new Scottish Gallery of Modern Art. So that, while there remains the cetainty that important works are still to be discovered, he has access to the major public and private collections. The illustrations cover the artist's whole career from the luscious still life paintings and Sargeant-esque figure compositions of the earliest period, through the brilliant, vibrant work done in France before the First World War, strongly influenced by post-Impressionism, to the life-enhancing still life and landscapes of his maturity. An all-inclusive chronology of Peploe's work, the biography is illuminating for both collectors and devotees. Throughout it is a visual feast, using the best modern printing techniques to do justice to Scotland's greatest Colourist.