Winifred Nicholson

Private Collection, London
Crane Kalman Gallery, London, where acquired by the previous owners, 19th November 1996, and thence by descent 

London, Alex. Reid & Lefevre Ltd, circa 1950, (details untraced);
London, Crane Kalman Gallery, An Unknown Aspect of Winifred Nicholson, 9th - 25th October 1975, cat. no.21, (as Lily and Guitar, Quai d’Auteuil, 1936);
Cambridge, Kettle's Yard Gallery, Winifred Nicholson, 28th July – 22nd September 2001, cat. no.40, illustrated p.40, with tour to Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, and Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle.

The board appears sound. The board appears to have been affixed to the stretcher bars with nails, and in places the paint around the heads of the nails is flaking, with some associated losses. There are some minor losses to the paint, most apparent in the upper left quadrant, with further very minor flecks elsewhere, only visible upon close inspection. There are several light scratches to the board, including one towards the upper left vertical edge, one in the cream painted area in the lower left quadrant, and several towards the lower horizontal edge. There are some traces of studio detritus and surface dirt across the paint surface and the work may benefit from a light clean. With the exception of the above the work appears to be in good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals fluorescence which suggests scattered retouching around the edges of the work, most significantly to the afore mentioned nail heads and at the upper left corner and along the upper edge. There is further areas of retouching in line with the scratches towards the lower horizontal edge. There appears to be some florescence at the right vertical edge and the lower right corner but these appear to be the hand of the artist. The work is presented in a simple painted wooden frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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We are grateful to Jovan Nicholson for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

‘These were years of inspiration – fizzing like a soda water bottle’

(Winifred Nicholson, quoted in Andrew Nicholson, ed., Unknown Colour, Paintings, Letters, Writings, by Winifred Nicholson, Faber and Faber, 1987, p.105)

Winifred Nicholson moved to Paris in the autumn of 1932 after her marriage to Ben Nicholson had moved into a new phase. It was an inspired move. Based at a flat at 48 Quai d’Auteuil, (now quai Louis-Blériot) she embraced the Parisian art world, for as she described it, ‘Almost everyone one met was expressing genius, inventiveness, dedication to their vision – and sharing it with their confrères. Some were poets, the forerunners of concrete poetry, some were sculptors, seeking new form, some were doctors seeking new psychology for ills for which they knew there could be remedies’ (Winifred Nicholson, quoted in Andrew Nicholson, (ed.), Unknown Colour, Paintings, Letters, Writings, by Winifred Nicholson, Faber and Faber, London, 1987, p.106).

Winifred Nicholson mixed easily with the Parisian artists for as Ben Nicholson remarked she ‘had a special gift for understanding our artist’s work’ (Jovan Nicholsoned., Art and Life: BenNicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis, William Staite Murray, 1920-1931,Philip Wilson Publishers, 2013, p.171). She made friends with Mondrian, Hélion and Gabo: she also knew Giacometti and purchased works by all of them. Winifred was the first British person to buy a painting by Mondrian, and successfully encouraged her friends to buy his works too (see fig.1.). Winifred was also instrumental in encouraging Ben Nicholson, who continued to visit her and their children in Paris, and made his first relief while staying with Winifred and also made one of his finest reliefs while staying at the Quai d’Auteuil (see Jovan Nicholson, (ed.),  Art and Life, Ben Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis, William Staite Murray, 1920-1931, Philip Wilson Publishers, 2013, p.45).

Surrounded by the atmosphere of abstraction Winifred Nicholson began to make abstract paintings alongside her more traditional work. However, few of her abstract paintings were exhibited at this time and the first full exhibitions of these paintings were not until 1975. The fact that Winifred exhibited Lily and Guitar, Quai d’Auteuil alongside two other similar works, Day and Night, Paris (Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia) and Quai d’Auteuil, Night: Lilies and Guitar (Private Collection), in her all abstract exhibition in London in 1975 suggests that Winifred viewed these works as an important development in her understanding of abstraction.

In the very whiteness of the lilies and the overall lightness of Lily and Guitar, Quai d’Auteuil it is tempting to see a correlation with Ben Nicholson’s white relief also made in Winifred’s flat White Relief: Quai d’Auteuil, 1935 (Tate, London).

Jovan Nicholson