''From Bedroom Window, Bankshead'', date unknown, private collection ''Costa Brava'', 1953, Government Art Collection Rosa Winifred Nicholson (née Roberts; 21 December 1893 – 5 March 1981) was a British painter. She was married to the painter

Ben Nicholson Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscapes, and still-life. He was one of the leading promoters of abstract art in England. Backg ...

, and was thus the daughter-in-law of the painter William Nicholson and his wife, the painter Mabel Pryde. She was the mother of the painter Kate Nicholson.

Life

Nicholson was born Rosa Winifred Roberts in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

on 21 December 1893. She was the eldest of the three children of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

politician Charles Henry Roberts and Lady Cecilia Maude Howard, daughter of the politician

George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle George James Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle (12 August 184316 April 1911), known as George Howard until 1889, was an English aristocrat, peer, politician, and painter. He was the last Earl of Carlisle to own Castle Howard. Early life Howard wa ...

, and of the activist Rosalind Howard. Nicholson started painting as a teenager with her grandfather George Howard, who was a capable amateur painter and a friend of the

Pre-Raphaelites The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti ...

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...

and

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August 183317 June 1898) was an English painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. Burne-Jones worked with William Morris as a founding part ...

, and of the Italian landscape painter Nino Costa, founder of the Etruscan School. Nicholson attended the

Byam Shaw School of Art The Byam Shaw School of Art, often known simply as Byam Shaw, was an independent art school in London, England, which specialised in fine art and offered foundation and degree level courses. It was founded in 1910 by Byam Shaw, John Liston Bya ...

in London from about 1910 or 1912 until the outbreak of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in 1914, and again from 1918 to 1919. In 1919, Nicholson travelled with her father, who had been Under-Secretary of State for India, to

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

(now Myanmar),

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

(now Sri Lanka) and India. On 4 November 1920, she married the artist

, the son of the painter Sir William Newzam Prior Nicholson and his wife, the painter Mabel Pryde. The couple bought a villa in Switzerland, the Villa Capriccio near the village of Castagnola on the north shore of

Lake Lugano Lake Lugano ( or , from ; ) is a glacial lake which is situated on the border between southern Switzerland and northern Italy. The lake, named after the city of Lugano, is situated between Lake Como and Lago Maggiore. It was cited for the first t ...

Ticino Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts ...

. They spent the winters in Switzerland and the summers in Britain, painting

still-life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or human-made (drinking glasses, books, ...

s and

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

s. In 1924, Winifred bought Bankshead, a farmhouse built on an

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

castle forming part of

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall (, also known as the ''Roman Wall'', Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Aelium'' in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...

, at

Banks A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. As banks ...

, not far from the town of

Brampton Brampton is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario, and the regional seat of the Regional Municipality of Peel. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#L ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

, and close to the family seat,

Naworth Castle Naworth Castle, also known or recorded in historical documents as "Naward", is a castle in Cumbria, England, near the town of Brampton, Carlisle, Brampton. It is adjacent to the A69 road (England), A69 road from Newcastle upon Tyne to Carlisle, ...

. In 1924, Nicholson, who believed that she was unable to conceive, joined the

Christian Science Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices which are associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes in ...

movement, which was in vogue in Britain at that time. She and Ben eventually had three children: Jake was born in 1927,

Kate Kate may refer to: People and fictional characters * Kate (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Gyula Káté (born 1982), Hungarian amateur boxer * Lauren Kate (born 1981), American author o ...

in July 1929, and Andrew in 1931. By the time of Kate's birth, there were tensions in the marriage, and these were exacerbated by the suicide of their close friend, the painter Kit Wood, in August 1930. In 1931, Ben met

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadin ...

– whom he later married – and he and Winifred separated. In 1932, Winifred moved with her three children to Paris, and from then until 1936 Ben often visited them there, sometimes with Hepworth; the marriage ended in divorce in 1938, and Ben married Hepworth in November of the same year. In Paris she formed friendships with a number of

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

and

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a Composition (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...

ists, among them

Hans Arp Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (; ; 16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist. Early life Arp was born Hans Peter Wilhelm Ar ...

, Constantin Brancusi,

César Domela César Domela (15 January 1900 – 30 December 1992) was a Dutch sculptor, painter, photographer, and typographer, and a key member of the De Stijl movement. Life He was born César Domela Nieuwenhuis in Amsterdam. His father, Ferdinand ...

Jean Hélion Jean Hélion (April 21, 1904October 27, 1987) was a French painter whose abstract work of the 1930s established him as a leading modernist. His midcareer rejection of abstraction was followed by nearly five decades as a figurative painter. He w ...

and

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch Painting, painter and Theory of art, art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He w ...

. She died in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

on 5 March 1981.

Work

Nicholson painted mostly still-lifes and landscapes. While in Paris in the 1930s she made some abstract works.

Reception

Significant exhibitions of her works have taken place at the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

Gallery (1987), at the

Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, officially known as Tullie since July 2024, is a museum in Carlisle, England. Opened by the Carlisle Corporation in 1893, the original building is a converted Jacobean mansion, with extensions added when it ...

in Carlisle, Cumbria, at

Kettle's Yard Kettle's Yard is an art gallery and house in Cambridge, England. The director of the art gallery is Andrew Nairne. Both the house and gallery reopened in February 2018 after an expansion of the facilities. History and overview Kettle's Yar ...

in Cambridge and at the

Dean Gallery Modern Two, formerly the Dean Gallery, in Edinburgh, is one of the two buildings housing the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, one of Scotland's national art galleries. It is operated by National Galleries Scotland. It is twinned with ...

in Edinburgh. Her auction record of £200,000 was set at Sotheby's auction house in London in November 2016 for her 1928 oil and coloured pencil on panel ''St Ives' Harbour'', from

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

's collection – the pop star had bought the work at Christie's in 1994.Sotheby's: ''Bowie/Collector'', November 2016
/ref>

Notes

References

External links