Nicholson, Winifred, 1893–1981 | Art UK

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Cyclamen and Primula

© Trustees of Winifred Nicholson. Photo credit: Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge

Cyclamen and Primula c.1923

Winifred Nicholson (1893–1981)

Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge

Painter in oil, watercolour, gouache and pencil, especially of flowers and landscapes. Born in Oxford, she attended the Byam Shaw School of Art. Participated in extensive mixed exhibitions throughout her life, initially as Winifred Roberts, her maiden name. She married the painter Ben Nicholson in 1920 and had her first solo show at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London, as Winifred Nicholson in 1927. Was a member of the Seven and Five Society 1925–1935 and the NEAC 1937–1943. Was the mother of the painter Kate Nicholson. Contributed to Circle, International Survey of Constructive Art, in 1937, designed a “constructive” fabric for Alastair Morton’s Edinburgh Weavers in the same year, as Winifred Dacre, and under the same name showed four abstract works in an Exhibition of Constructive Art at the London Gallery.

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Text source: Artist's estate

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Artist's website

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Biography on Wikipedia

Biography from Liss Llewellyn

Winifred Nicholson (née 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 ‘Unknown 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).

^{Biography from Liss Llewellyn}