Ben Nicholson and his Artist Relatives

I am delighted to have written the blog ‘A Private Family Portrait: Ben Nicholson and his Artist Relatives‘ for Pallant House Gallery, Chichester.

Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981), Portrait of Christopher Nicholson, c.1928
On loan from a Private Collection to Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (c) Estate of the Artist

Ben Nicholson: From the Studio Exhibition

It was written to accompany Pallant House’s exhibition ‘Ben Nicholson: From the Studio‘. This brings together the objects, from jugs to goblets and spanners, with which Nicholson filled his studios, with the works in which they appear, including drawings, paintings and reliefs. In this way it is possible to trace Nicholson’s development of the still-life genre throughout his career and how these everyday items inspired his visualisation of beauty, orchestration of colour and experiments with abstraction.

E. Q. Nicholson (1908-92), The Mill House Garden, 1944
On loan from a Private Collection to Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (c) The Estate of E. Q. Nicholson

A Private Family Portrait Blog

Nicholson was part of an exceptional family and my blog discusses a work each by him and four of his artist relatives: his mother Mabel Pryde Nicholson (1871-1918), his father William Nicholson (1872-1949), his first wife Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981) and his sister-in-law E. Q. Nicholson (1908-92). All the works are on long-loan to Pallant House and are currently on display. They include Winifred’s portrait of Ben’s brother, the architect Christopher ‘Kit’ Nicholson, seen above and his widow E. Q.’s painting of her garden in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, also seen above.

You can read the blog here, the exhibition runs until 24 October 2021 and its super catalogue can be sourced here.

For more about Ben Nicholson, you might like this blog, Mabel Pryde Nicholson features in this blog and for more about still-life painting follow this link!