institutional
Winifred Nicholson
(1893 - 1981)
Amy, 1928
Institutional Collection
Winifred Nicholson (1893 - 1981)
Oil on canvas
32 x 22 in. (81.5 x 56 cm)
Size:
Height – 81.5cm
Width – 56cm
Exhibited: 50/50; Fifty British Women Artists 1900 – 1950, Worshipful Company of Mercers (3rd December 2018 Р23rd March, 2019); The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds (9th April, 2019 Р27th July, 2019).
This portrait depicts Amy Little, one of the maids that worked for Ben
and Winifred Nicholson at Bankshead, the house bought by Winifred
in 1923. In the painting, acquired for Jerwood Collection in 1997, Amy
sits sewing at a table covered in a lilac print cloth which matches the
apron she wears; she looks out at the viewer over a table on which spring
flowers have been arranged. Through this quietly beautiful painting we
are given a glimpse into the Nicholsons’ private domestic life as well as
their relationship and wider friendships.
The piece was exhibited the year it was made alongside paintings
by Ben and pottery by William Staite Murray and, through a recording
of Amy talking about sitting for Winifred, we gain an insight into
Winifred’s practice: Amy recollected that Winifred worked in silence,
while she sat sewing, and painted her hair redder than it was.
Amy was painted in spring 1928 during a particularly happy period
of Winifred’s life: as well as being settled in her beloved Bankshead, her
close friend and fellow artist Christopher Wood had come to stay. Later
Winifred recalled (in Unknown Colour, published 1987): ‚Äú… primroses
came out in the lane in sheltered nooks. One whole day I painted them
and other spring flowers in small glass jars with Amy sewing by the
table… He [Wood] came up from the valley with the springing step of
eternal youth. He had been out all day with Ben along by the river in the
green valley making schemes for pictures and drawings.”
Commentary by Lara Wardle, freelance curator, Director of Jerwood Collection and Director of Jerwood, a
family of philanthropic arts organisations supporting the Arts in the UK.
Winifred Nicholson (n e Roberts) attended Byam Shaw School of
Art, London (1912’14 and 1918’19), exhibiting at the RA from
1914.
In 1920, she married painter Ben Nicholson and they moved
to Switzerland. She held her first solo exhibition at Mayor Gallery
in 1925 and between 1926’35 was part of the 7&5 Society.
Continuing to travel after separating from her husband in
1931, Nicholson lived in Paris with her children before settling in
Cumbria (1939). She also held solo shows at Leicester Galleries,
Alex Reid & Lefevre and Crane Kalman Gallery.
She painted vivid colourful works and wrote at length on
her fascination with prisms and rainbows. Her essay âUnknown
Colour’ was published in Circle: International Survey of Constructive
Art in 1937.
Her later years were marked by a series of exhibitions, including
a 1969 retrospective at Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal, a
solo exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (1972) and another
retrospective organised by the Scottish Arts Council (1979).