Ben Nicholson, O.M.

Acquired directly from Kate Nicholson by the previous owner, from whom acquired by the present owner

The board is sound. There appears to be a very minor indentation in the left hand cloud, only visible upon close inspection. There are some very minor spots of staining, otherwise the work appears in excellent overall condition. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be two spots of retouching in the left-hand cloud, corresponding with the above mentioned abrasion. Held in a simple, painted wood frame. Please call the department on 0207 293 6424 if you have any questions about the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

When looking at the path of British art in the twentieth century, there are many defining landmarks by which we have come to shape our conception of the era. Some deeply affected the whole population, such as the Western Front or the Blitz, or effected national celebrations like the Coronation in 1953. Others were artistic events which still resonate today; the publication of Blast, the Festival of Britain or Sensation. The visit to the small Cornish fishing town of St Ives by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood in the late summer of 1928 is surely also one of these moments.

Although their 'discovery' of Alfred Wallis, the semi-literate retired mariner who painted his maritime memories on odd-shaped remnants of card, has been itself mythologised, the impact on these two artists and on the modernist circles in Britain is beyond doubt. Both Nicholson and Wood had, like many of their contemporaries, been watching the progress in Europe of ideas and theories concerning the immediacy and essential truth of naïve and child art, the transmission of experience and understanding without the sleight of hand of the trained artist. Their own paintings had begun to show efforts to capture this spontaneity, but in Wallis they found the real thing. Untrammelled by painting convention or even any particular sense of himself as an artist, Wallis' paintings have the genuine tang of the sea, the slap of waves on hull, the rush of the land passing by. Capturing an imaginative realism that is not based in a pictorial realism, Wallis offered Nicholson and Wood a way forward and his influence becomes immediately discernible in their paintings.

For Nicholson, his paintings of the town of St Ives, its beaches and landscape are distilled to their essential element. In 1928 (St.Ives Harbour), the distinctive topography of the bay and the Island beyond as one looks across from Portminster Beach is reduced to simple forms, yet the identity of the place is as clear as one could wish. The merest strokes of slate-grey gives the roofs of the town its form, the rocks that tumble into the sea below the Pedn-Olva Hotel flashed in quickly with broad swipes of ochre. Pencil lines define spaces and forms, the rock in the sand before us, the twin lighthouses of Smeaton's Pier and the sleek form of the white yacht heading into the harbour, Nicholson gives us everything we need to see to understand this place, its rugged beauty, its organic growth along the edge of the sea.

Despite the importance of the impact on Nicholson's painting that was made by the example of Wallis, there are in fact relatively few other paintings of St Ives of this date, suggesting that it took him time to assimilate its ramification for his art. Questions as to quite how he would absorb this new influence is perhaps also seen in works such as 1928 (Porthmeor Beach, St Ives) or Porthmeor Beach No.2 (both Private Collection) where there is a rather different spirit, one that is substantially ethereal. 1928 (St.Ives Harbour) shares a more earthly conception of place with Cornwall, 1928 (Kettle's Yard, Cambridge), but within these two paintings we can quite clearly see how that chance meeting in the small streets of St Ives would influence not only Nicholson's own generation of artists but those that were to come.