Ben Nicholson, O.M.

David Hughes, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1972

The canvas is unlined. Apart from scattered retouchings, mainly in the background, and some spots of retouching in the lower grey area, visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in good condition. Colours: In comparison with the printed catalogue illustration, the colours are overall fairly accurate, although slightly stronger and fresher in the original.
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Painted in the 1930s, the present work is among Nicholson's most rigorously abstract canvases of this period. The grid of horizontal and vertical lines, together with the use of a primary colour palette, suggests something of the work of Piet Mondrian, whom Nicholson had met whilst visiting Paris in 1933. At the same time, the spectral silhouette of a wine glass together with the shifting background of seemingly collaged squares recalls the spliced compositions of Picasso's papiers collés. In the present work, the interrelation of form and tone can deceive; the curved contour towards the upper centre of the canvas defines both a glass and the neck of a carafe, as the neighbouring blocks of white and red hues oscillate between the foreground and the background. This sophisticated work defines Nicholson's abstract style in its most elegant and harmonious form.

'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' (Nicholson, quoted in Norbert Lynton, Ben Nicholson, London, 1993, p. 251). Such is the uniquely lyrical manner in which Ben Nicholson described his approach to abstract art – one which demonstrates a propensity towards the purest of abstract lines, whilst, at all times, respecting the presence of the objects which inspired his compositions.