Ben Nicholson, O.M.

signed, titled and dated on the reverse.: Ben Nicholson, June 1963
oil and pencil on canvas, mounted on the artist's board
canvas: 60 by 55cm.; overall: 77.5 by 72cm.

Executed in 1963

The Artist by whom gifted to a Private Collector
Their sale, Sotheby's London, 28th June 1989, lot 182, where acquired by the present owner

Not examined out of the frame. The canvas and board appear sound. The canvas undulates slightly in places, and there is a light stretcher line visible towards the left side of the upper horizontal edge. There are two pinholes apparent to the canvas, one towards the upper right vertical edge, and another towards the right side of the lower horizontal edge, the latter with some small flecks of associated paint loss, both of which are thought to be as a result of the canvas being affixed to the board. There is a further very small pinhole apparent towards the right side of the upper horizontal edge. There are one or two extremely tiny lines of craquelure apparent in the light orange rectangle in the upper left, towards the left side of the lower horizontal edge, near the base of the circle and in the lower centre of the circle, only visible upon extremely close inspection. There is a very small possible speck of loss in lower right corner. Subject to the above, the work appears to be in very good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals two spots of possible retouching to the lower left of the Artist's prepared board, and a further small spot of retouching to the upper right corner of the board. The canvas is float mounted onto the Artist's prepared board, and presented in the Artist's own wooden frame, held under glass. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding 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."

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 1958, Ben 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 in 1958, Nicholson 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.' (The Artist, 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 unfounded: the move heralded an Indian summer for the artist, and indeed 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.  With his new custom-built studio he could produce work on a much larger scale, for example the monumental Oct 61 (Mycenae - Axe-Blue) (sold in these rooms, 11th July 2013, for £1,082,500). An expansion of his vision and space correspondingly led to a greater depth in his work, and this new, idyllic setting gave rise to a magisterial new quality in his work. Writing in 1959, he 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' (the Artist, 1959, quoted in Norbert Lynton, Ben Nicholson, Phaidon Press, London, 1993, p.311).

Emerging from this period of renewed creativity, June 1963 (lilac-blue) is a work of masterful subtlety. Nicholson here uses canvas almost as board: a relief-style assemblage of shapes fill the surface, reminiscent of his earlier carved reliefs. Gone are the unmodulated, flat areas of pure colour of earlier works: here, these forms are at once both opaque and translucent, as washes of colour spread airily across the surface. Yet the work is as much a painting as a drawing: much of Nicholson's work is anchored in astute draughtsmanship, a crisp, sharp line of graphite running almost continuously throughout his oeuvre. It is this deft and thoughtful line which appears again in the present work: at the centre of the canvas we find a perfect circle set slightly off-centre within a pale, creamy square, reminiscent perhaps of the rising evening moon Nicholson so vividly described in 1959. In the cool, light tones of pale blue and lilac, there is a freshness and sense of space which perfectly evokes the mountainous scenery of the Ticino: a landscape of light, transcribed onto canvas.