Hedgerow Flowers in a Jug

Location

Country: Belgium
City: Brussels
Place: British Embassy, UK representation to the EU & UK delegation to NATO

This image of wild flowers casually arranged in a jug is a recurrent subject in Winifred Nicholson's oeuvre. In her own words:
I have tried to paint many things in many ways, but my paintbrush always gives a tremor of pleasure when I let it paint a flower.
She believed that colour was the most important element of painting and that it could be found in its purest form in the petals of flowers. Applied on a uniquely-shaped wooden board rather than on canvas, the work – perhaps suitably for a still-life – has the feel of an object instead of a straightforward painting.

Winifred Nicholson was born in Oxford and studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London. After travelling in Asia, she married the artist Ben Nicholson in 1920. They lived between Switzerland and London. From 1928 to 1935 both were members of the Seven and Five Society, along with Christopher Wood, Ivon Hitchens, John Piper, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. After separating in 1931, Winifred moved to Paris with their children where artists including Jean Hélion and Piet Mondrian encouraged her to develop her own style. From 1939 she lived in Cumbria but regularly travelled abroad. Her career was overshadowed by the achievements of her ex-husband, yet a major memorial show at the Tate in 1987 helped to redress this.

Places

Subjects

still life, flower, jug, hedgerow, table (as Subject)

Materials & Techniques

board, oil, oil painting

Artist

Winifred Nicholson (1893 - 1981)

Title

Hedgerow Flowers in a Jug

Date

Medium

Oil on board

Dimensions

height: 45.00 cm, width: 70.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the Fine Art Society, July 1978

Inscription

None

Provenance

Sold through Sotheby's, New Bond Street, London, ‘Modern British Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture’ sale, on 7 July 1978 (Lot 77), as ‘Hedgerow Flowers in July’, for £280; from which sale purchased by the Fine Art Society, London; from whom purchased by the Department of the Environment in July 1978

GAC number

13862