Winifred Nicholson[a] (21 December 1893 – 5 March 1981) was a British painter. She was married to the painter Ben Nicholson, and was thus the daughter-in-law of the painter William Nicholson and his wife, the painter Mabel Pryde. She was the mother of the painter Kate Nicholson.
Winifred Nicholson was a colourist who developed a personal impressionistic style, concentrating on domestic still life objects and landscapes. She often combined the two subjects as seen in her painting From Bedroom Window, Bankshead showing a landscape viewed through a window, with flowers in a vase in the foreground.
WINIFRED NICHOLSON (BRITISH 1893-1981) SOUND OF RUM FROM BAY OF LAIG, ISLE OF EIGG (THE SINGING SANDS), EARLY 1950s oil on board 58cm x 83.5cm (22 ¾in x 32 7/8in) Acquired from the Artist by her elder son, the late Jake (Jacob) Nicholson (1927-2003) and thence by descent to the present owner Exhibited: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Winifred Nicholson in Scotland, 10 July - 7 September 2003 and touring to Duff House, Banff, 8 November 2003 – 18 January 2004 and An Tuireann, Skye, 24 January – 20 March 2004;Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, on long-loan 2019 - 2024.Literature:Strang, Alice, Winifred Nicholson in Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2003, pp. 47-8, p. 51, pl. 23, illustrated. “‘Thirty years separate Winifred’s first and last known stays on Eigg; the first visit was with Kathleen [Raine] from June until July 1950. The last, which was to be her final working trip, was with her daughter Kate in May 1980…In 1950 Winifred and Kathleen stayed in the manse at night, but during the day worked in a crofter’s cottage at Kildonan…[They]…walked to Cleadale in the north of the island, Eigg’s only surviving group of crofts and it was near here that Winifred painted Sound of Rum from Bay of Laig, Isle of Eigg.’” (Alice Strang, Winifred Nicholson in Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2003 p.47-48)Rhododendrons, Eigg (Pink Rhododendrons) and Sound of Rum from Bay of Laig, Isle of Eigg (The Singing Sands) epitomise Winifred Nicholson’s love for Scotland and in particular the Hebridean island of Eigg. They were acquired from the artist by her son, the designer Jake (Jacob) Nicholson (1927-2003), who cherished them for the rest of his life.Nicholson worked in Scotland repeatedly in the late 1940s and early 1950s, often accompanied by her friend, the poet Kathleen Raine (1908-2003). They stayed on the islands of Eigg and Canna and also in Sandaig on the mainland; there they rented Gavin Maxwell’s cottage, which he immortalised as Camusfèarna in his Ring of Bright Water trilogy.Eigg is just five miles long by five miles wide and is situated twelve miles from Mallaig on the mainland, just south of Skye. Some three decades passed between Nicholson’s first trip there, in the summer of 1950 with Raine and her last, in the Spring of 1980, with her daughter, the artist Kate Nicholson (1929-2019). Raine had idyllic memories of her and Nicholson’s first experience of the island, later recalling: ‘The Factor [of Eigg] was previously employed by Winifred’s father...and he allowed us to camp during the day in an uninhabited cottage where Winifred painted and I wrote, or walked off gathering flowers, many of which Winifred painted…We boiled water and made ourselves cups of tea from time to time and enjoyed the illusion of living there…On our first visit to Eigg I remember it was sultry summer weather and we walked to the top of the island.’ (Quoted in Alice Strang, Winifred Nicholson in Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2003, p.47)In her turn, whilst there Nicholson wrote to Jake exclaiming ‘Kathleen has written some magical poems. I’ve done about 16 pictures here, how good I don’t know until I get back to look at them against other things.’ (quoted in Strang, op.cit., p.48).Sound of Rum from Bay of Laig, Isle of Eigg reveals Nicholson’s deep connection with the Scottish sea- and landscape and her sensitivity to the gentle, shimmering light unique to the area. The bay, on Eigg’s west coast, commands fine views over the sea to Rum, whose Cuillin peaks are seen emerging from diaphanous clouds. There is a sense of island remoteness and purity. This painting is also known as The Singing Sands after the nearby beach of Camas Sgiotaig, where in certain conditions the sand makes noises when walked upon. This magical natural phenomenon has been explained by Geoffrey Grigson thus:‘Dry blown sand around the coast may emit an unexpected sound, slight or pronounced, when you walk over it or drag a stick across it. Off the dunes and below the high-tide mark, water is drawn in and held between the grains of sand by capillary action. The grains do not touch. Without this water cushion dry grains rub together when they are moved, and if they are of the same shape and size they jerk against or across each other as they do so, vibrating and “singing”.’ (Geoffrey Grigson, The Shell Country Alphabet, from Apple Trees to Stone Circles, How to Understand the British Countryside, Particular Books, London, 2009, p.344)When creating the work, Nicholson positioned herself behind and above the white foreshore in order to embrace the curve of the bay. Undulating ground, cliff and hill combine to create an awareness of natural rhythm, heightened by the edge of the wave at the boundary between water and beach. The sky holds muted sunshine as well as a suggestion of something more powerful. The delicate palette, based on blue, green and grey, carries an atmosphere of peace, beauty and a sense of wonder. Nicholson and Kate spent two weeks on Eigg in May 1980, accompanied at first by the artist Donald Wilkinson (b.1937) and his family and secondly by the artists Valerie Thornton (1931-91) and Michael Chase (1915-2001). This time she stayed in the Gamekeeper’s Cottage. As Alice Strang has explained:‘The Gamekeeper’s Cottage is the highest house on the island, with panoramic views across the sea to the mainland. Due to the atmospheric conditions in the area, rainbows occur there with unusual frequency. From an early age Winifred had been fascinated by them, as they were a natural display of the splitting of light into the colour spectrum.’ (Strang, op.cit., p.50) This phenomenon is celebrated in Rhododendrons, Eigg. A painting infused with colour and joy, it was created with the aid of a prism that Nicholson had recently acquired. Her series of prismatic paintings, of which Rhododendrons, Eigg is one of the finest, were extremely important to the artist. Her grandson, Jovan Nicholson has explained, quoting her:‘The way Winifred used a prism is straightforward: when you look through a prism the objects you see are rimmed with rainbow colours. “[My] prism is in a back pocket in my purse. I can put my hand into my pocket and pull it out whenever I want to see a rainbow. For the prism shows us rainbows everywhere.” She valued her prism as “a very little pot of gold”, for she “found out what flowers know, how to divide the colours as prisms do, onto longer and shorter wavelengths, and in so doing giving the luminosity and brilliance of pure colours…in the ordered sequence of the octave of colour.”’ (Jovan Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson: Liberation of Colour, Philip Wilson Publishers, London, 2016, p 32)Moreover, Nicholson was drawn to paint flowers for much of her career, partly as a way to explore her theory that ‘colour is not just a coat over objects – it lies on the rim of objects between one form and the neighbouring form or space.’ (quoted in Judith Collins, Winifred Nicholson, The Tate Gallery, London, 1987, p.31). She sensed that flowers:‘…create colours out of the light of the sun, refracted by the rainbow prism…The flowers are sparks of light, built of and thrown out into the air as rainbows are thrown, in an arc…My paint brush always gives a tremor of pleasure when I let it paint a flower…to me they are the secret of the cosmos.’ (quoted in ed. Andrew Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson: Unknown Colour, Faber & Faber, London, 1987, pp. 239 & 216)The rainbows that shimmer amidst the titular flowers in Rhododendrons, Eigg heighten the viewer’s awareness of their delicate beauty, as well as that of the patterned cloth on which they are presented and the expanse of their natural surroundings. These are more sensed and glimpsed than simply seen, in an image in which an element of spirituality is combined with heartfelt optimism. Sound of Rum from Bay of Laig, Isle of Eigg (The Singing Sands) and Rhododendrons, Eigg (Pink Rhododendrons) were included in the National Galleries of Scotland touring exhibition Winifred Nicholson in Scotland (2003-04) and were reproduced in the accompanying book by Alice Strang. They returned to a Scottish island when they were on long-loan to the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness, Orkney between 2019 and 2024 (Nicholson having painted there during the summer of 1953). Examples of Nicholson’s Scottish paintings can be found in the public collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario (Mrs Campbell’s Window, 1951), Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (Flodigarry Island, Skye, 1949) and Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle (Bonnie Scotland, c.1951).We are grateful to Jovan Nicholson for his help in researching these paintings.
WINIFRED NICHOLSON (BRITISH 1893-1981) RHODODENDRONS, EIGG (PINK RHODODENDRONS), 1980 Oil on canvas 43cm x 58cm (16 7/8in x 22 ¾in) Acquired from the Artist by her elder son, the late Jake (Jacob) Nicholson (1927-2003) and thence by descent to the present owner Exhibited: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Winifred Nicholson in Scotland, 10 July - 7 September 2003 and touring to Duff House, Banff, 8 November 2003 – 18 January 2004 and An Tuireann, Skye, 24 January – 20 March 2004;Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, on long-loan 2019 - 2024.Literature: Nicholson, Andrew (ed.), Winifred Nicholson: Unknown Colour, London, 1987, p. 74, illustrated;Strang, Alice, Winifred Nicholson in Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2003, p.53, p. 52, pl. 24, illustrated. “On Eigg, at the age of eighty-six, Winifred created a vigorous late body of work…During this final working trip, Winifred was able to combine her deeply felt love of Scotland and fascination with the light there, with her lifelong concern for colour and the edges of the visible spectrum. In works such as Rhododendrons, Eigg and Hebridean Roses, Eigg (Private Collection) she looked through a prism in order to paint flowers, picked on the island, which created the spectrum of light caught in the glass vessels. In both works she set the flowers before seascapes which shimmer with northern spring light.”(Alice Strang, Winifred Nicholson in Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2003, p.53)Rhododendrons, Eigg (Pink Rhododendrons) and Sound of Rum from Bay of Laig, Isle of Eigg (The Singing Sands) epitomise Winifred Nicholson’s love for Scotland and in particular the Hebridean island of Eigg. They were acquired from the artist by her son, the designer Jake (Jacob) Nicholson (1927-2003), who cherished them for the rest of his life.Nicholson worked in Scotland repeatedly in the late 1940s and early 1950s, often accompanied by her friend, the poet Kathleen Raine (1908-2003). They stayed on the islands of Eigg and Canna and also in Sandaig on the mainland; there they rented Gavin Maxwell’s cottage, which he immortalised as Camusfèarna in his Ring of Bright Water trilogy.Eigg is just five miles long by five miles wide and is situated twelve miles from Mallaig on the mainland, just south of Skye. Some three decades passed between Nicholson’s first trip there, in the summer of 1950 with Raine and her last, in the Spring of 1980, with her daughter, the artist Kate Nicholson (1929-2019). Raine had idyllic memories of her and Nicholson’s first experience of the island, later recalling: ‘The Factor [of Eigg] was previously employed by Winifred’s father...and he allowed us to camp during the day in an uninhabited cottage where Winifred painted and I wrote, or walked off gathering flowers, many of which Winifred painted…We boiled water and made ourselves cups of tea from time to time and enjoyed the illusion of living there…On our first visit to Eigg I remember it was sultry summer weather and we walked to the top of the island.’ (Quoted in Alice Strang, Winifred Nicholson in Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2003, p.47)In her turn, whilst there Nicholson wrote to Jake exclaiming ‘Kathleen has written some magical poems. I’ve done about 16 pictures here, how good I don’t know until I get back to look at them against other things.’ (quoted in Strang, op.cit., p.48).Sound of Rum from Bay of Laig, Isle of Eigg reveals Nicholson’s deep connection with the Scottish sea- and landscape and her sensitivity to the gentle, shimmering light unique to the area. The bay, on Eigg’s west coast, commands fine views over the sea to Rum, whose Cuillin peaks are seen emerging from diaphanous clouds. There is a sense of island remoteness and purity. This painting is also known as The Singing Sands after the nearby beach of Camas Sgiotaig, where in certain conditions the sand makes noises when walked upon. This magical natural phenomenon has been explained by Geoffrey Grigson thus:‘Dry blown sand around the coast may emit an unexpected sound, slight or pronounced, when you walk over it or drag a stick across it. Off the dunes and below the high-tide mark, water is drawn in and held between the grains of sand by capillary action. The grains do not touch. Without this water cushion dry grains rub together when they are moved, and if they are of the same shape and size they jerk against or across each other as they do so, vibrating and “singing”.’ (Geoffrey Grigson, The Shell Country Alphabet, from Apple Trees to Stone Circles, How to Understand the British Countryside, Particular Books, London, 2009, p.344)When creating the work, Nicholson positioned herself behind and above the white foreshore in order to embrace the curve of the bay. Undulating ground, cliff and hill combine to create an awareness of natural rhythm, heightened by the edge of the wave at the boundary between water and beach. The sky holds muted sunshine as well as a suggestion of something more powerful. The delicate palette, based on blue, green and grey, carries an atmosphere of peace, beauty and a sense of wonder. Nicholson and Kate spent two weeks on Eigg in May 1980, accompanied at first by the artist Donald Wilkinson (b.1937) and his family and secondly by the artists Valerie Thornton (1931-91) and Michael Chase (1915-2001). This time she stayed in the Gamekeeper’s Cottage. As Alice Strang has explained:‘The Gamekeeper’s Cottage is the highest house on the island, with panoramic views across the sea to the mainland. Due to the atmospheric conditions in the area, rainbows occur there with unusual frequency. From an early age Winifred had been fascinated by them, as they were a natural display of the splitting of light into the colour spectrum.’ (Strang, op.cit., p.50) This phenomenon is celebrated in Rhododendrons, Eigg. A painting infused with colour and joy, it was created with the aid of a prism that Nicholson had recently acquired. Her series of prismatic paintings, of which Rhododendrons, Eigg is one of the finest, were extremely important to the artist. Her grandson, Jovan Nicholson has explained, quoting her:‘The way Winifred used a prism is straightforward: when you look through a prism the objects you see are rimmed with rainbow colours. “[My] prism is in a back pocket in my purse. I can put my hand into my pocket and pull it out whenever I want to see a rainbow. For the prism shows us rainbows everywhere.” She valued her prism as “a very little pot of gold”, for she “found out what flowers know, how to divide the colours as prisms do, onto longer and shorter wavelengths, and in so doing giving the luminosity and brilliance of pure colours…in the ordered sequence of the octave of colour.”’ (Jovan Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson: Liberation of Colour, Philip Wilson Publishers, London, 2016, p 32)Moreover, Nicholson was drawn to paint flowers for much of her career, partly as a way to explore her theory that ‘colour is not just a coat over objects – it lies on the rim of objects between one form and the neighbouring form or space.’ (quoted in Judith Collins, Winifred Nicholson, The Tate Gallery, London, 1987, p.31). She sensed that flowers:‘…create colours out of the light of the sun, refracted by the rainbow prism…The flowers are sparks of light, built of and thrown out into the air as rainbows are thrown, in an arc…My paint brush always gives a tremor of pleasure when I let it paint a flower…to me they are the secret of the cosmos.’ (quoted in ed. Andrew Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson: Unknown Colour, Faber & Faber, London, 1987, pp. 239 & 216)The rainbows that shimmer amidst the titular flowers in Rhododendrons, Eigg heighten the viewer’s awareness of their delicate beauty, as well as that of the patterned cloth on which they are presented and the expanse of their natural surroundings. These are more sensed and glimpsed than simply seen, in an image in which an element of spirituality is combined with heartfelt optimism. Sound of Rum from Bay of Laig, Isle of Eigg (The Singing Sands) and Rhododendrons, Eigg (Pink Rhododendrons) were included in the National Galleries of Scotland touring exhibition Winifred Nicholson in Scotland (2003-04) and were reproduced in the accompanying book by Alice Strang. They returned to a Scottish island when they were on long-loan to the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness, Orkney between 2019 and 2024 (Nicholson having painted there during the summer of 1953). Examples of Nicholson’s Scottish paintings can be found in the public collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario (Mrs Campbell’s Window, 1951), Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (Flodigarry Island, Skye, 1949) and Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle (Bonnie Scotland, c.1951).We are grateful to Jovan Nicholson for his help in researching these paintings.
§ WINIFRED NICHOLSON (BRITISH, 1893-1981) WINIFRED NICHOLSON (BRITISH, 1893-1981) White Church Skopelos coloured chalk 33.5 x 49.5 cm. (13 1/4 x 19 5/8 in.) Executed circa 1961 Provenance With Wendy Bray, Rugby, 2 December 1989, where purchased by the present owner Exhibition Possibly; Redfern Gallery, Winifred Nicholson: Wild Flowers in Greece, September 1964 We are grateful to Jovan Nicholson for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.
WINIFRED NICHOLSON (BRITISH 1893-1981) PLUM BLOSSOM, GREECE, 1973 signed, titled and dated (to reverse), gouache and pastel 40.5cm x 29.5 cm (16in x 11 5/8in) Redfern Gallery, London, from whom acquired by the present owners, July 1993;The Collection of Drs Antony and Zarrina Kurtz.
Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) Minoan Goddess acrylic, gouache, chalk and watercolour on paper 54 x 79cm (21 1/4 x 31 1/8in). Executed circa 1960-1964
Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) My Bedroom Window signed, titled and dated 'Winifred Nicholson 1973/'My Bedroom Window' (verso) oil on canvasboard 48.5 x 58.8 cm. (19 1/8 x 23 1/8 in.)
Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) Flowers in Snow, Bankshead signed and dated 'Winifred Nicholson/1967' (verso) and titled 'FLOWERS IN SNOW BANKSHEAD' (on the canvas overlap) oil on canvas 56 x 76.4 cm. (22 x 30 in.)
Winifred Nicholson British 1893 - 1981 Window inscribed with the artist's name, the title and medium on an Everard Read gallery label adhered to the reverse oil on board 33 by 24cm excluding frame; 54 by 45,5 by 4,5cm including frame
Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) Port Isaac, Cornwall signed and titled 'Porth Isaac Cornwall Winifred Nicholson' [sic] (on the stretcher bar) oil and metallic spraypaint on canvas 60.5 x 86 cm. (23 7/8 x 33 7/8 in.) Painted circa 1970 with a further painting of a cove to the reverse, by the same hand
Winifred Nicholson, British 1893-1981 - Flowers; crayon on paper, 33.5 x 48.7 cm (ARR) Provenance: Sotheby's, London, 30th September 1992, lot 117 (unsold - according to the inscription on the reverse of the frame); with Elena Gaputyte; private collection, purchased from the estate of the above (according to the inscription on the reverse of the frame); private collection Note: Elena Gaputyte ran the Sail Loft Gallery, St. Ives, and was familiar with the celebrated artists of the era, such as Ben Nicholson, Peter Lanyon and Barbara Hepworth. This late work by Winifred Nicholson demonstrates the artist totally liberation of colour from form, the scene built up of energetic waves of pure colour. The artist was particularly interested in an understanding of light and translucency, and in later works such as this she experimented with a prism to explore of rainbow colours in everyday objects. This work was most likely made in Greece, where the artist visited frequently from the 1960s and which was the focus of numerous of her exhibitions, including at the Redfern Gallery in 1964.
Winifred Nicholson, British 1893-1981 - Flowers; crayon on paper, 33.5 x 48.7 cm (ARR) Provenance: Sotheby's, London, 30th September 1992, lot 117 (unsold - according to the inscription on the reverse of the frame); with Elena Gaputyte; private collection, purchased from the estate of the above (according to the inscription on the reverse of the frame); private collection Note: Elena Gaputyte ran the Sail Loft Gallery, St. Ives, and was familiar with the celebrated artists of the era, such as Ben Nicholson, Peter Lanyon and Barbara Hepworth. This late work by Winifred Nicholson demonstrates the artist totally liberation of colour from form, the scene built up of energetic waves of pure colour. The artist was particularly interested in an understanding of light and translucency, and in later works such as this she experimented with a prism to explore of rainbow colours in everyday objects. This work was most likely made in Greece, where the artist visited frequently from the 1960s and which was the focus of numerous of her exhibitions, including at the Redfern Gallery in 1964.
§ WINIFRED NICHOLSON (BRITISH 1893-1981) FROM THE TOP OF THE HILL OF FIRE, 1964 Inscribed and dated verso, pastel on paper (34cm x 49.25cm (13.25in x 19.25in)) Provenance: Acquired from the artist by Jake Nicholson and thence by descent to the present owner
§ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981) Pylos, 1965 inscribed (to reverse), pastel on buff paper (56cm x 60cm (22 1/4in x 23 3/4in)) Provenance: Estate of the Artist and thence by descent to the present owner.
WINIFRED NICHOLSON (1893-1981) Marsh Iris WINIFRED NICHOLSON (1893-1981) /Marsh Iris/ signed, inscribed and dated 'MARSH Iris Winifred Nicholson 1969' (on the stretcher) oil on canvas 20 x 26 in. (50.8 x 66 cm.) Painted in 1969.
WINIFRED NICHOLSON (1893-1981) Japanese Anemones WINIFRED NICHOLSON (1893-1981) /Japanese Anemones/ signed, inscribed and dated 'Japanese Anemones/Painted in Paris 1920 (?)/Winifred Nicholson' (on the backboard) oil on board 21 3/4 x 19 3/4 in. (55 x 50 cm.) Painted /circa /1930.
λ WINIFRED NICHOLSON (BRITISH 1893-1981)SUN HAZEOil and gouache on paper49.5 x 60cm (19¼ x 23½ in.)Executed circa 1965.Provenance: Redfern Gallery, LondonPrivate Collection (acquired from the above in February 1989)
Winifred Nicholson 1893 - 1981 Star of Bethlehem and Viper's Vetch signed Winifred Nicholson, titled and dated 1965 (on the reverse) gouache on paper unframed: 38.5 by 56.5cm.; 15¼ by 22¼in. framed: 56 by 72.5cm; 22 by 28½in. Executed in 1965. We are grateful to Jovan Nicholson for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work. Bid on Sotheby's
Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) February oil, crayon and silver spray paint on board 57.8 x 60.5 cm. (22 3/4 x 23 3/4 in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
§ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981) Blue Sea Goddess inscribed (to reverse), oil on canvas (50cm x 65cm (19.75in x 25.5in), unframed) Footnote: Provenance: The Estate of the Artist, and thence by descent.
§ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981) Flowering Tree / Donkeys at a Well / Branch with Flowers pastel on cream paper / pastel on cream paper / inscribed (lower left), crayon on cream paper respectively, all unframed (36.8cm x 49.4cm (14.5in x 19.5in); 35.3cm x 50.6cm (13.8in x 22 in) and 37.8cm x 50.4cm (14.75in x 19.75in)) Qty: (3) Provenance: Acquired from the artist by Jake Nicholson and thence by descent to the present owner.
§ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981) Rainbow Over the Sea pastel on paper (41cm x 55.8cm (16.15in x 22in)) Provenance: Acquired from the artist by Jake Nicholson and thence by descent to the present owner.
§ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981) Study for 'Serpent Votaries', early 1960s / Turquoise Flowers and other studies and Fish Detail and other studies (double-sided) crayon on cream paper and crayon on cream paper (double-sided), both unframed (35.4cm x 50.6cm (14 x 19.8in) and 35.6cm x 50.8cm (13.75in x 20in)) Qty: (2) Provenance: Acquired from the artist by Jake Nicholson and thence by descent to the present owner. Footnote: Study for 'Serpent Votaries' is related to the watercolour Serpent Votaries of 1963, on loan to Pallant House Gallery, Chichester from a private collection. Judith Collins, curator of the 1987 Tate retrospective exhibition of Winifred Nicholson’s work has explained: ‘The myths of particular places fascinated the artist. She read widely of the Celtic and early British myths of her area of Roman Britain; and also, when she began to visit Greece, of Greek myths. The continuing occupation of the land by figures from history was a belief of hers; people could slip in and out of time scales.’ (Judith Collins, Winifred Nicholson, Tate Gallery, London, 1987 p. 94).
§ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981) Two Birds oil on canvas (26.5cm x 40.5cm (10.5in x 16in)) Provenance: Acquired from the artist by Jake Nicholson and thence by descent to the present owner. Footnote: Winifred Nicholson took a delight in birds, particularly those in flight as seen in this intimate work. Deftly painted, the birds are observed in the midst of daffodils, pecking at the ground and at the point of flying away.
§ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981) The Argive Twins Descend, 1967 gouache and pastel on paper (53cm x 76cm (20.8in x 29.8in)) Provenance: Acquired from the artist by Jake Nicholson and thence by descent to the present owner
§ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981) Agamemnon and Clytemnestra mixed media on paper laid on card (53.3cm x 67.3cm (21in x 26.5in)) Provenance: Acquired from the artist by Jake Nicholson and thence by descent to the present owner. Footnote: Literature: Andreae, C., Winifred Nicholson, Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2009, p. 175 (illustrated in colour fig. 169) In Greek mythology Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae. His wife Clytemnestra was the sister of Helen of Troy.
§ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981) Jake and Kate on the Beach, early 1930s oil and sand on canvas (35.5cm x 40.8cm (14in x 16in)) Provenance: Acquired from the artist by Jake Nicholson and thence by descent to the present owner. Footnote: Winifred and Ben Nicholson’s children, Jake, Kate and Andrew, were born in 1927, 1929 and 1931 respectively. This is one of a series of important portraits which Winifred painted of her elder children after she and Ben had separated; others include Jake and Kate on the Isle of Wight, 1931, National Galleries of Scotland and The Artist’s Children, Jake and Kate, at the Isle of Wight, c.1931, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. Here, Kate is depicted in profile, smiling as she holds out her arms in a game. Jake is viewed from behind, his spade laid down in front of him. The tide is low and the boundaries of the fields nearby come together in the centre of the hill in the middle distance. A keen sense of place is heightened by the inclusion of sand in the surface of the painting, which glitters and adds a sensory layer to the idyllic scene of childhood. This work may have been painted during a holiday on the Northumberland coast in 1933.
§ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981) Pillar in Greek Landscape / Greek Landscape with Terraces pastel on grey paper and pastel on cream paper, both unframed (30cm x 45.5cm (11.5in x 17.8in) and 35.2cm x 50.6cm (13.8in x 20in)) Qty: (2) Provenance: Acquired from the artist by Jake Nicholson and thence by descent to the present owner. Footnote: Winifred Nicholson and Greece Winifred Nicholson and her daughter Kate visited Greece for the first time in 1960. They returned for extensive painting trips every year until 1967. Winifred wrote to Jake from Delphi in 1961 explaining something of the country’s attraction for her: ‘The sunshine is very wonderful and the colour of everything is marvellous…The sea is emerald near land and then aquamarine, so transparent you can see golden, gleaming transparencies to the very depths, possibly buried sunken treasure…The hills which look brown bare from the bus, when you tread on them are wild flowers, perfume of honey and thyme, like a carpet – every kind and colour of flowers and all wonderful shapes, clear and definite like everything in Greece.’ (letter of 1 May 1961 quoted in Andrew Nairne and Elizabeth Fisher, Winifred Nicholson: Music of Colour, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 2012, unpaginated). Winifred worked en plein air in Greece, often using bright pastels and crayons to capture the sense of natural beauty and presence of ancient history which she felt there. Works like The Argive Twins Descend (lot XXX) and Agamemnon and Clytemnestra (lot XXX) illustrate her deep interest in Greek mythology, as revealed in a significant yet less well-known strand within her practice.
§ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981) Temple in Greek Landscape and Mountain Scene / Two Greek Temples pastel on cream paper (double-sided) and pastel on green paper, both unframed (30.2cm x 45.5cm (11.8in x 17.8in) and 24.4cm x 34.6cm (9.6in x 13.6in)) Qty: (2) Provenance: Acquired from the artist by Jake Nicholson and thence by descent to the present owner.
Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) Arlots oil on board 55.5 x 55cm (21 7/8 x 21 5/8in). Painted circa 1970 For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981) Narcissi in Basket Screenprint in colours, 1979, initialled and dated in pencil, numbered from the edition of 150, published by the Third Eye Gallery, Glasgow, on wove paper, with full margins, 430 x 510mm (17 x 20 in) This lot is sold subject to Artists Resale Rights, details of which can be found in our Terms and Conditions.
Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) Greek Landscape chalk, acrylic and watercolour on paper 54.5 x 75.5cm (21 7/16 x 29 3/4in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
λ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981)Landscape Under Snow, Eigg Oil on canvas 74 x 83.5cm (29 x 32¾ in.)Painted in circa 1950s. With a sketch of mother and child seated verso. Provenance:Crane Kalman Gallery, LondonAcquired from the above in 1992 Thence by descent to the present ownerExhibited:London, Crane Kalman Gallery, The Rural Poetry of 3 English Women Painters, May-June 1992'Those seemingly casual flowers with their airy-light petals were the work of deep understanding and mastery of colour, her lifelong study.' Kathleen Raine, from the introduction for The Rural Poetry of Three English Women Artists, Crane Kalman Gallery, 1992.The present lot captures the dramatic weather during Winter in Eigg, one of the isles in the Scottish Hebrides. Winifred Nicholson visited Eigg for the first time in 1950 with her close friend and poet Kathleen Raine. The pair frequently travelled together following this date exploring the Scottish Hebrides, regularly staying at author Gavin Maxwell's house located in Sandaig in Ross-shire. Winifred reveals her working processes in the Hebrides within letters, especially to her son Andrew and husband Ben. She expresses her love for the landscape and location 'this is a place after my heart' which is not full of lush greenery but greys and large stone formations. She describes the sea as 'full of grey mysterious islands and rocks, seals and seabirds.' Winifred watched the world go by during these days commenting on families going about their daily lives and animals congregating in search of food. [letter to Andrew Nicholson, from Isle of South Uist, Hebrides c. 1950, Unknown Colour, p.228 quoted in Jovan Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Liberation of Colour, Philip Wilson Publishers, Bloomsbury Publishing, London & Dublin, 2016, p88] Winifred was drawn to the rural setting striving for a closeness to nature. This new landscape allowed her to explore and experiment with colour an element in painting which became her core concern. Winifred worked directly from nature, working briskly almost finishing a picture in a whole sitting. She often painted late at night 'between midnight and one in the morning,' expressing how 'it is of course a magic light then.' The viewer is drawn straight into the rural landscape through Winifred's window with plants and leaves shooting upwards from the lower edge. The purple, blue and grey fluid brushstrokes capture the unpredictable weather of the Hebrides and reflect Winifred's enthusiastic and dedicated approach to working direct from nature. [letter to Ben Nicholson, 1950s TGA 8717/1/1/1830 quoted in Jovan Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Liberation of Colour, Philip Wilson Publishers, Bloomsbury Publishing, London & Dublin, 2016, p88]
Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) February oil, crayon and silver spray paint on board 57.8 x 60.5 cm. (22 3/4 x 23 3/4 in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) Arlots oil on board 55.3 x 55 cm. (21 3/4 x 21 5/8 in.) Painted circa 1970 For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
• Ⓖ WINIFRED NICHOLSON (1893-1981) FLOWERS ON A WINDOW SILL, 1978 Oil on canvas laid on board 60 x 60 cm/23 3/4 x 23 3/4 in Provenance: Private Collection, Devon; the current owner was gifted the picture by her mother-in-law who worked at Kettles Yard, Cambridge and is thought to have bought the picture from an exhibition there in the 70~s or 80~s Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981) was born in Oxford and attended the Byam Shaw School of Art. She was a colourist who developed a modern experimental style, concentrating on still lives and landscapes. Married to the painter Ben Nicholson in 1920, they exhibited together throughout the decade in London exhibitions, and she became a member of the Seven & Five Society between 1925 and 1935. She travelled extensively, painting on her travels, and after the war she settled in Cumbria. This current work is most likely to have been painted from her house which had views over the North Pennines. She often positions jugs, jars or pots of flowers on windowsills, so that the indoor and outdoor challenge or complement each other. Her still lives of flowers are infused with a pictorial light and a spiritual quality, perhaps due to the transience nature of the subject. The poet Kathleen Raine, a friend and admirer of Nicholson, wrote: ~Flowers, for her, were not solid objects, coloured, but in the most literal sense made of light.~ Nicholson herself wrote ~I like painting flowers - I have tried to paint many things in many different ways, but my paint brush always gives a tremor of pleasure when I let it paint a flower.....~* The artist John Craxton, who held her work in high esteem, observed that at her best Winifred Nicholson seemed not to realise how difficult it is to paint. *(From The Flowers of Winifred Nicholson, Crane Kalman Gallery, London 1969 and reprinted in Unknown Colour: Paintings, Letters, Writings, by Winifred Nicholson, ed. Andrew Nicholson, Faber and Faber, London, 1987, as ~The Flower~s Response~). Part proceeds to benefit The Grange Festival
Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) Staffa titled and dated 'Staffa./1969' (on sheet verso) pastel, gouache and ball-point pen on paper 34.5 x 50cm (13 9/16 x 19 11/16in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) Arlots oil on board 55.3 x 55 cm. (21 3/4 x 21 5/8 in.) Painted circa 1970 For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
§ Winifred Nicholson (British 1893-1981) Awake, 1973 inscribed, titled and dated (to reverse), oil on canvas (60cm x 50cm (23.6in x 19.75in)) Footnote: Provenance: Crane Kalman Gallery, London, where acquired from the artist's family; Private Collection, UK. “I like painting flowers. I have tried to paint many things in many different ways, but my paintbrush always gives a tremor of pleasure when I let it paint a flower … to me they are the secret of the cosmos.” These were the reflections of Winifred Nicholson, one of the most celebrated British artists of the early twentieth century. Known for her still life and landscape compositions, Nicholson’s exploration of the genres often resulted in the merging of the two, developing what was to become an instantly recognisable style – that of a still life arrangement on a windowsill with an abruptly foreshortened view beyond. This sincerity which underpins her paintings accounts for their endless ability to provide their audience with pleasure, but their gentle warmth should not lead her admirers to underestimate her work. Nicholson deftly utilised Impressionist, Modernist, and Romantic tendencies to create a unique style and distinct touch which, though often bordering on the naïve, would be near impossible to imitate. Her influence can be traced in the works of her husband Ben Nicholson in his muted palette, and also in her contemporaries including Ivon Hitchens and Christopher Wood, with whom she was close. This keen eye and technical understanding also came to bear in her relationships with prominent French Modernists of the period. Nahum Gabo, Jean Hélion, and Alberto Giacometti became friends, and Nicholson’s private collection contained pieces by each of them. She was also the first British collector to buy a work by Piet Mondrian, as well as accompanying him to Britain from Paris in 1938. Nicholson entered into the most experimental phase of her career from the 1960s. Colour and light had always been the driving force behind her artistic explorations, Nicholson once articulating in a letter to her daughter that “…all painting is to me painting of air and sky – that holds colours and light – not pictures of objects.” This became increasingly true and, as light and colour are broken down into its purest form within a prism, her work became more pared back and abstracted. The offered painting Awake, painted in 1973, exemplifies this stage of her development. The title and the artwork are inseparably intertwined: the hazy colour palette and loose, textured daubs of brushwork successfully evoking the thin light of the early morning, and our own instinctive response to it. This piece came from the artist’s family’s own collection, before being featured in an exhibition at the Crane Kalman Gallery.
