William Nicholson 1872-1949

Best known during his lifetime as a portrait painter, Nicholson’s real love was landscape and still-life. The countryside – particularly the Downs of Sussex and Wiltshire - provided a welcome escape from the society portraits of the city. Nicholson often expressed his difficulty in painting a subject that he did not love, he would spend weeks in a landscape before attempting to record it on canvas, similarly, he would spend days with a still life, getting to know it before taking up a brush. 

 

Born in Newark-on-Trent on 5 February 1872, William Nicholson's early artistic career was centred around the production of advertising posters - made in partnership with his brother in law, James Pryde - followed by illustrative woodcuts. Subsequently, Nicholson turned to painting, with portraiture commissions providing his primary means of support - he was best known in his lifetime as a portrait painter, however, his real love was landscape and still-life.

He also had a strong interest in the theatre and children's literature, and created set designs for a number of productions, including J. M. Barrie's first production of Peter Pan in 1922, and the illustrations for Margery Williams' 'The Velveteen Rabbit' also in 1922. 

'[William Nicholson] was an artist whose response was awakened by such as the appeal of a Downland landscape or an uncluttered still life. Sophisticated simplicity informs his best work to such an extent that before a small painting of a jug or distant hill one is deceived into murmuring "What is all the fuss about - it looks so easy".' - Lillian Browse, 1995