In January 1923 an exhibition of paintings by Peploe, Cadell and Hunter was mounted at the Leicester Galleries in London; the following year they showed with Fergusson, the first time the four artists were presented as a group. Hunter painted ‘Cottages, Fife’ during this period, when he was living a nomadic existence between Scotland, France and Italy. It is a lively painting that depicts a small cottage almost engulfed by landscape around it.