Ben Nicholson

Hubberholme, Yorkshire

Artist's Resale Right

Auction Closed

June 7, 03:45 PM GMT

Estimate

7,000 - 10,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Collection of Angela Verren Taunt

Ben Nicholson

1894 - 1982

Hubberholme, Yorkshire

signed NICHOLSON, titled, dated 1972, inscribed for Angela and variously inscribed (on the reverse of the backboard)

pencil and watercolour wash on paper, adhered on to board

unframed (sheet): 38.5 by 51.5cm.; 15 by 20¼in.

unframed (board) 45.5 by 62cm; 18 by 24½in.

framed: 48.5 by 65cm.; 19 by 25½ in.

Executed in 1972.

We are grateful to Rachel Smith for her kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

A catalogue raisonné of Ben Nicholson’s paintings and reliefs is currently being prepared, and the authors encourage owners to be in touch. Please write to Rachel Smith, c/o Sotheby’s Modern & Postwar British Art, Sotheby’s, 34-35 New Bond Street, London, W1A 2AA or email info@bncr.org.uk.

Gifted by Ben Nicholson to Angela Verren Taunt

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, no. 33 (details untraced)

London, The Tate Gallery, Ben Nicholson, 13 October 1993 - 9 January 1994, no. 130, illustrated in the exh. cat., p. 236

St Etienne, Musée d'Art Modern, Ben Nicholson, 17 February - 2 May 1994, no. 130 (Arts Council Exhibition)

Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Ben Nicholson and the St Ives School (details untraced)

Ben Nicholson met Angela Verren Taunt at a Christmas party in Cambridge on 29 December 1971. Angela was a talented painter herself and had been a great admirer of Nicholson’s work. Ben invited Angela to visit his studio soon after they met, and it was clear there was an immediate connection. She shortly became his studio assistant, and the close friendship which developed between the two was of fundamental importance to the last ten years of Nicholson’s life. They also worked as collaborators on occasion. The support and creative exchange Ben received from Angela was an energizing element, which along with a return to the UK, helped him recapture a creative energy and zest for life and encouraged his artistic output during this final decade.