Ben Nicholson, O.M.

Galerie Charles Lienhard, Zurich, where acquired by Professor H. Krayenbühl, Zurich in 1959
His sale, Christie's London, 30th March 1981, lot 74
Waddington Galleries, London, where acquired by the present owner in 1983

Zurich, Galerie Charles Lienhard, Ben Nicholson, 3rd January - 7th February 1959, cat. no.92, illustrated;
Bern, Kunsthalle Bern, Ben Nicholson, 27th May - 2nd July 1961, cat. no.90;
London, Waddington Galleries, Group V, January 1982, cat. no.80, illustrated;
Bottrop, Quadrat Bottrop Moderne Galerie, Ben Nicholson, 29th October - 10th December 1989, cat. no.29.

Herbert Read, Ben Nicholson: Paintings, Tudor Publishing, New York, 1962, illustrated fig.13;
John Russell (intro.), Ben Nicholson, Drawings, Paintings and Reliefs 1911-1968, Thames and Hudson, London, 1969, cat. no.122, p.312, illustrated.

The following condition report has been prepared by Philip Young of Philip Young Conservation.CONDITIONThe outer frame appears to be a recent copy, this was removed for the examination. The painting has clearly been well protected in the long term by framing and glazing. The board is flat, with no noted loss or damage, the fixed timber strainer adhered to the back of the board is the original and part of the original construction.The points of condition noted in the image are all minor and only apparent on close examination, the paint film and surface are in good condition. There is little trace of a frame rebate mark around the edges, there is a short 10m light scratch showing pale in the upper left and the board corners are intact and well preserved. The pencil is sharp and not smudged.No restoration or addition was noted in this examination in normal or UV light. Remaking the outer frame for a design closer to what the original may have been, may be an option for the future.Philip YoungPlease contact the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have questions regarding the present work.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

We are grateful to Dr Lee Beard for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

‘The kind of painting I find exciting is not necessarily representational or non-representational, but it is both musical and architectural where the architectural construction is used to express a “musical” relationship between form, tone, colour and whether this visual, “musical” relationship is slightly more or less abstract is for me beside the point.'

(Ben Nicholson, quoted in Norbert Lynton, Ben Nicholson, Phaidon, London, 1993, p.251.)

Ben Nicholson met and married the young photographer Felicitas Vogler in 1957, and it was at her suggestion that the new couple left St Ives for the continent. Moving to Switzerland in March 1958, Nicholson discovered in the mountains of the Ticino not only a new landscape but also fresh inspiration for his work. They settled by Lago Maggiore, with its epic, rugged scenery, and built a house just outside Brissago with wonderful views looking east across the lake. Writing to Winifred Nicholson, Ben expressed his excitement at this new, calm environment: ‘We have bought a piece of land not far from here and are working on plans of a house and studio.. the site is a steep one but in a heavenly position – I wonder if I shall do any work once I get there – it would be easy to stay all day and every day and look at the changing landscape.’ (Ben Nicholson, 1958, quoted in Andrew Nicholson (ed.), Unknown Colour: Paintings, Letters, Writings by Winifred Nicholson, Faber and Faber, London, 1987, p.172).

Nicholson’s fears of a lack of productivity in this new setting proved entirely unfounded: the move heralded an Indian summer for the Artist, and simultaneously gave him greater freedom in many aspects of his life. Living now in the heart of Europe, he was not only removed from the sometimes fractious internal politics of the British Art world and the rivalries between its peers, but was also able to travel more extensively, and the subsequent works from this period are a catalogue of his travels. The present work refers to Lake Iseo, another breathtaking expanse of water about 130 miles southeast of Brissago over the Italian border. Writing in 1959 about his new surroundings, Nicholson noted eloquently that: ‘The landscape is superb, especially in winter and when seen from the changing levels of the mountainside. The persistent sunlight, the bare trees seen against a translucent lake, the hard, rounded forms of the snow topped mountains, and perhaps with a late evening moon rising beyond in a pale, cerulean sky is entirely magical with the kind of poetry which I would like to find in my painting’ (Ben Nicholson, 1959, quoted in Norbert Lynton, Ben Nicholson, Phaidon Press, London, 1993, p.311).

Emerging at the start of this period of renewed creativity, Sept 58 (Iseo) is a work of masterful subtlety. Inspired by the light, colours and atmosphere he experienced by Iseo, the composition focuses on Nicholson’s most favourite subject – the traditional genre of the still life with everyday objects such as goblets and a jug laid out across the table-top. Nicholson had been interested in still life from an early stage in his career and later recalled that ‘of course I owe a lot to my father – especially to his poetic idea and to his still life theme. That didn’t come from Cubism.. but from my father’ (Ben Nicholson quoted in The Sunday Times, 28th April 1963); Sir William Nicholson’s exemplary handling of objects in works such as Petunias and Chrysanthemums in a Mocha Jug (lot 2) must have been a clear influence.

Although painted in 1958, the present work is also highly reminiscent of Nicholson’s style that he developed in the 1920s when he had first married Winifred Nicholson and when they travelled together in Europe and experienced the French avant-garde at first hand. The interlocking shapes and stylised lines of the table top objects clearly allude to cubist influences and more specifically to Picasso and Braque’s Synthetic Cubism that they developed together in the first decade of the 20^th Century.

The distinctive surface of Sept 58 (Iseo) is also important. The underlying ground is clearly visible beneath the multi-layered paint surface and as such, draws attention to the physical nature of the board itself. Winifred later explained that it was Christopher Wood who introduced her and Ben to the technique of ‘painting on coverine. It dries fast, you can put it over old pics (Winifred Nicholson, Kit, unpublished memoir, Tate Gallery Archive 723.100, p.25). It created a firm painting ground, which was visible beneath the painted image. In the present work, Nicholson has quite literally worked the surface, rubbing away at the paint to create a highly textured finish. This takes on a dynamic three-dimensional quality as varying layers of paint have been stripped back to reveal the board itself whilst the bold curvilinear forms set on the table top reverberate across the composition.