Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981)
Wild Flowers
Nicholson was born in Oxford into an eminent family, prominent in art and politics. She was encouraged to paint from an early age by her grandfather, George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle, who was an accomplished painter and friend of the Pre-Raphaelites. She later attended the Byam Shaw Art School.
In 1920 she married the artist Ben Nicholson with whom, over the subsequent 18 years, she would form a mutually influential partnership. They moved to Bankshead, Cumberland, which would become home for the rest of her life. Here she created a garden with wild flowers. The painting of these flowers, their translucent colours, often in the foreground, or on a window ledge with landscape in the far distance, became her central motif and content.
Following her separation from Ben (1931/2) she left for Paris, where she spent half of each year (1932-1938). During this time she briefly experimented with abstraction.
Her work was exhibited in solo exhibitions primarily in London, Edinburgh, Leicester and Cambridge. She also participated in joint exhibitions with Ben Nicholson in London at the Beaux Arts Gallery (1923) and at the Mayer Gallery (1925) and with Christopher Wood, with whom she became friends, at the Beaux Arts Gallery (1927).
Oil on canvas
22 x 23 3/4 ins (56 x 603 cms)
SOLD
Provenance
With Arthur Tooth & Sons, Ltd
Collection of Sir Michael Ernest Sadler, Oxford University
Sothebys, 2nd May 1990
Private collection, UK
Exhibited
59th Autumn Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 4 October - 13 December, 1933
Literature
Art and Life: Ben Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis, William Staite Murrary, 1920-1931, p.35
"Winifred was most delighted painting Wild Flowers, although she not do so as often as might be expected. Here there is wild garlic, kingcups (the orange flowers), bluebells and other wild flowers. It bears a striking resemblance to 'Wild Garlic' in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Although 'Wild Garlic' is dated c.1935, very probably the two pictures were painted at the same time, though it is difficult to know where they were made. The flower wild garlic is very characteristic of Winifred Nicholson's native Cumberland, but in the spring of 1932 she lived near Par in Cornwall, so the picture could also have been painted there" Jovan Nicholson (son of Winifred and Ben Nicholson)
Sir Michael Ernest Sadler (1861-1943) was an English historian, educationalist and university administrator. He was a student at Christ Church, Oxford and returned there in 1923 as Master of University College, during which time this painting was in his collection.