William Nicholson (artist)

Sir William Newzam Prior Nicholson (5 February 1872 – 16 May 1949) was a British painter of still-life, landscape and portraits. He also worked as a wood-engraver and lithographer, as an illustrator, as an author of children's books and as a designer for the theatre.

Sir William Nicholson
William Nicholson, photographed in Bloomsbury on 3 February 1908 by Alvin Langdon Coburn
Born	William Newzam Prior Nicholson 5 February 1872 (1872-02-05) Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire
Died	16 May 1949 (1949-05-17) (aged 77) Blewbury, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire)
Nationality	British
Known for	painter of portraits, still-lifes and landscapes; engraver, graphic artist, illustrator
Spouse(s)	Mabel Pryde Edith Stuart-Wortley

Portrait Study of W.P. Nicholson, lithograph portrait of William Nicholson by James Pryde, published in The Studio, December 1897

Life

William Nicholson was born in Newark-on-Trent on 5 February 1872, the youngest son of William Newzam Nicholson, an industrialist and Conservative MP of Newark, and his wife Annie Elizabeth Prior, the daughter of Joseph Prior and Elizabeth (née Mallam) of Woodstock, Oxon.[1] From the age of 9 he attended Magnus Grammar School, first as a weekly boarder, later as a day-boy. He had art lessons from the painter, politician and art-master William Cubley of Newark-on-Trent, who had been a pupil of Sir William Beechey, in turn a pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds.[2] He was briefly a student at Hubert von Herkomer's art school, where he met his future wife Mabel Pryde (1871–1918), who introduced him to her brother James Pryde (1866–1941).[3] From the autumn of 1891 he attended the Académie Julian in Paris, but after six months returned to Newark.[3][4]

In the spring of 1893 Nicholson eloped with Mabel Pryde,[5] whom he had by then known for four years; they were married in Ruislip on 25 April.[6][7] The couple went to live in what had been a pub, the Eight Bells at Denham, Bucks.[8] They were soon joined by Mabel's brother James, and not long after by Ellen Terry's son Edward Gordon Craig and his wife May, who had also recently eloped and married. Nicholson received an annual allowance of £150 from his father.[9]

William and Mabel Nicholson had four children: the celebrated painter Ben (1894–1982); Anthony (1897–1918), who died of wounds in France during the First World War; Annie Mary "Nancy" (1899–1978), artist and wife of the poet Robert Graves; and the architect and designer Christopher "Kit" (1904–1948). Mabel died in July 1918 in the Spanish flu epidemic, and Anthony died soon afterwards.[3]

From about 1910 until he remarried in 1919, Nicholson's housekeeper Marie Laquelle, whose real name was Adèle Marie Schwarz, née Schiestel, was also his mistress. Nicholson painted her several times, first as Carlina in 1909; he also painted her daughter Georgette and her second husband Norman Holder.[4]

In October 1919 Nicholson married Edith Stuart-Wortley, widow of Sir John Stuart-Wortley, and who, under the name Elizabeth Drury, was also a painter.[10] Nicholson had painted her in the previous year as Lady in Grey.[7] Their daughter Liza was born in 1920.[3] Edie had two children from her previous marriage, and Nancy's daughter Jennie had been born the previous year. Nicholson's books for children all date from the 1920s; around this time he lived at the Old Manor House, Sutton Veny, Wiltshire.[11]

From 1935 until his death, Nicholson's companion was the novelist Marguerite Steen. According to Steen, they met in Andalucia in May 1935, and by mid-June were living together at Nicholson's mews studio in Apple Tree Yard, off Jermyn Street. Nicholson had been separated from Edie for some years, but they remained on good terms; although she promised to give him a divorce, she never did so.[12]

In later life, William Nicholson lived at Blewbury in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) where he died on 16 May 1949.[8]

Work

Graphic work

Main article: Beggarstaffs

From 1893 to 1898 Nicholson collaborated with his brother-in-law James Pryde on poster design and other graphic work including signboard painting and book illustration. They called themselves the Beggarstaffs, or J. & W. Beggarstaff; in recent times they have been referred to as the Beggarstaff Brothers, although they did not use this name.[13]

Book design and illustration

Nicholson provided illustrations and cover designs for several of the early books of his son-in-law Robert Graves. He supplied the illustrations for The Velveteen Rabbit, a book for children by Margery Williams (1922). He wrote and illustrated two books for children, Clever Bill (1926) and The Pirate Twins (1929), both published by Faber & Faber.

Paintings

Canadian Headquarters Staff, 1918 Canadian War Museum, Beaverbrook Collection of War Art

From about 1900 Nicholson concentrated on painting, encouraged by Whistler. He first exhibited as a painter at the International Society, of which Whistler was President.

Work in other fields

In 1904 he designed the original settings for Peter Pan, and went on to design other plays and to illustrate several books. He also designed stained glass, notably a memorial window at St Andrew's Church, Mells.

Teaching

Nicholson had a number of pupils, including, in the 1930s, Winston Churchill.[14] Churchill wrote that "I think the person who taught me most about painting was William Nicholson".[15]

Reception

Olympic medal record
Art competitions
	1928 Amsterdam	Graphic works[16]

Nicholson was awarded a gold medal in the graphic works section of the Art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam for his Almanach de douze sports 1898,[17] the French edition of the Almanac of Twelve Sports, published 30 years earlier.[16] He was knighted in 1936.[18]

Published works

As author and illustrator

• An Alphabet. London: William Heinemann, 1898.
• Twelve Portraits. London: William Heinemann; [New York]: R.H. R[ussell], 1899.

• Douze portraits Paris: H. Floury, [1899].

• Characters of Romance. London: William Heinemann, New York: R.H. Russell, 1900.
• Twelve Portraits – Second Series. London: William Heinemann; New York: R.H. Russell, 1902.
• Clever Bill. [London]: William Heinemann, [1926].
• The Pirate Twins. [London]: Faber & Faber, [1929].
• The Book of Blokes. [London]: Faber & Faber, [1929].

As illustrator

• An Almanac of Twelve Sports. Verses by Rudyard Kipling, illustrations by William Nicholson. London: William Heinemann, 1897.

• Almanach de douze sports 1898. Illustrations by William Nicholson, text by Octave Uzanne (Kipling's verses were not used in the French edition). Paris: Société française d'éditions d'art, [1898].

• London Types. Quatorzains by William Ernest Henley, illustrations by William Nicholson. London: William Heinemann; New York: R.H. Russell, 1898.
• Tony Drum: a Cockney Boy. Edwin Pugh, ten coloured plates from designs by the Beggarstaff Brothers (five by Nicholson, five by James Pryde). London: William Heinemann; New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1898.
• The Square Book of Animals. Rhymes by Arthur Waugh, illustrations by William Nicholson. London: William Heinemann, 1900 (designed 1896, copyright 1899).
• Oxford, Parts I and II, each containing lithographs by William Nicholson, descriptive notes by Arthur Waugh. London: Stafford Gallery, 1905.
• The Velveteen Rabbit, or, How Toys Became Real. Margery Williams, illustrations by William Nicholson. London: William Heinemann, 1922.

Exhibitions

The principal exhibitions of William Nicholson include:

Date	Gallery	Catalogue	Notes
1903	Stafford Gallery, London	The Works of William Nicholson[19]	first one-man show
April 1905	Galeries Barbazanges, Paris	Exposition des oeuvres de William Nicholson[20]
1906	W. B. Paterson Gallery, London
June–July 1910	Chenil Gallery, London	Exhibition of Paintings by William Nicholson: Rottingdean Landscapes and Other Subjects[21]
April–May 1911	Goupil Galleries, London	Oil Paintings by William Nicholson[22]
June–July 1918	Goupil Galleries, London	Still-life etc. by William Nicholson [23]
June–July 1927	Beaux Arts Gallery, London	Pictures and Drawings by William Nicholson [24]
1930	Beaux Arts Gallery, London
1933	Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham		first retrospective
May–June 1933	Beaux Arts Gallery, London	Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by William Nicholson [25]	retrospective
1934	City Museum and Art Gallery, Belfast	Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Prints by William Nicholson [26]	retrospective
1934	Leicester Galleries, London	Recent Paintings by William Nicholson [27]
1936	Leicester Galleries, London	An Exhibition of Paintings by William Nicholson[28]
1938	Leicester Galleries, London	An Exhibition of Paintings by Sir William Nicholson[29]
1942	National Gallery, London	Exhibition of Paintings by Sir William Nicholson and Jack B. Yeats[30]	retrospective, with Jack Yeats retrospective
1943	Leicester Galleries, London
1945	Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London	Paintings by Sir William Nicholson[31]
1947	Arts Council, London	Sir William Nicholson: Paintings, Woodcuts and Lithographs[32]
1951	Leger Gallery, London
1951	Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London
1954	Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London
1967	Marlborough Fine Art, London	William Nicholson[7]
1967	Folio Society, London	Sir William Nicholson: Prints and Drawings[33]
1972	Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London; Aldeburgh Festival	William Nicholson Centenary Exhibition[34]
1980–81	Arts Council of Great Britain: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent; City Art Gallery, Bristol; Cartwright Hall, Bradford	William Nicholson: Paintings, Drawings and Prints[35]
April–May 1981	Maclean Gallery	William Nicholson: Woodcuts and Lithographs[36]
1982–83	Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan Palazzo Venezia, Rome	William Nicholson: segno e immagine in un'ottica vittoriana[9]
1990	Browse & Darby	William Nicholson, 1872–1949[37]
1995–96	Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne; Kettle's Yard, Cambridge; Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham; Browse & Darby, London	William Nicholson: Landscape and Still-life[38]
May–July 1998	Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt	William Nicholson, das graphische Werk: 1895–1905[39]
October 2004 – January 2005	Royal Academy of Arts, London	William Nicholson (1872–1949): British Painter and Printmaker[4]

References

1. Lillian Browse (1956). William Nicholson. London: Rupert Hart-Davis.
2. Patricia Reed (2011). William Nicholson: Catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings. London; New Haven: Modern Art Press, Yale University Press. ISBN 978 0 300 17054 2
3. Colin Campbell (1992). William Nicholson: The Graphic Work. London: Barrie & Jenkins. ISBN 0-7126-2189-X.
4. Colin Campbell, Merlin James, Patricia Reed and Sanford Schwartz (2004). The Art of William Nicholson. London: Royal Academy of Arts. ISBN 1-903973-44-9.
5. Sanford Schwartz (2004). William Nicholson. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
6. John Rothenstein (1984). Modern English Painters, Volume One: Sickert to Lowry. London; Sydney: Macdonald. ISBN 0-356-10353-6. Second revised edition; first published (1952) as Modern English Painters: Sickert to Smith, 2 vols. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. pp. 113–120.
7. Alan Bowness (1967). William Nicholson, exhibition catalogue. London: Marlborough Fine Art.
8. Sophie Bowness (2004). Nicholson, Sir William Newzam Prior (1872–1949). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online edition). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35233.
9. Paola Watts (1983). William Nicholson: segno e immagine in un'ottica vittoriana (in Italian). Roma: Edizioni Quasar di Severino Tognon, for Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici di Roma.
10. Tim Hilton (1996). "The head of the family". The Independent, 21 January 1996.
11. Historic England. "Old Manor House (1183551)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
12. Marguerite Steen (1966). Looking Glass: An Autobiography by Marguerite Steen. London: Longmans. pp. 160–181.
13. Colin Campbell (1990). The Beggarstaff Posters: The Work of James Pryde and William Nicholson. London: Barrie & Jenkins, ISBN 0-7126-2079-6
14. "Nicholson". Fake or Fortune?. Series 7. Episode 1. 12 August 2018. BBC Television. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
15. "Philip Mould | Historical Portraits | Winston Churchill | Sir William Nicholson | Item Details". www.historicalportraits.com. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
16. G. van Rossem (ed.), Sydney W. Fleming (trans.) (1928). The Ninth Olympiad: Being the Official Report of the Olympic Games of 1928 Celebrated at Amsterdam. Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, p. 898. Accessed April 2013. (warning: large file)
17. "William Nicholson". Olympedia. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
18. Supplement to The London Gazette. 34296:3996. Accessed March 2012.
19. [s.n.] (1903). The Works of William Nicholson, exhibition catalogue. London: Stafford Gallery.
20. Octave Uzanne (1905). Exposition des oeuvres de William Nicholson, exhibition catalogue. Paris: Galeries Barbazanges.
21. [s.n.] (1910). Exhibition of Paintings by William Nicholson: Rottingdean Landscapes and Other Subjects, exhibition catalogue. London: Chenil Gallery.
22. [s.n.] (1911). Oil Paintings by William Nicholson, exhibition catalogue. London: Goupil Gallery.
23. [s.n.] (1918). Still-life etc. by William Nicholson, exhibition catalogue. London: Goupil Gallery.
24. [s.n.] (1927). Pictures and Drawings by William Nicholson, exhibition catalogue. London: Beaux Arts Gallery.
25. [s.n.] (1933). Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by William Nicholson, exhibition catalogue. London: Beaux Arts Gallery.
26. [s.n.] (1934). Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Prints by William Nicholson, exhibition catalogue. Belfast: City of Belfast Museum and Art Gallery.
27. [s.n.] (1934). Recent Paintings by William Nicholson, exhibition catalogue. London: Leicester Galleries.
28. [s.n.] (1936). An Exhibition of Paintings by William Nicholson, exhibition catalogue. London: Leicester Galleries.
29. [s.n.] (1938). An Exhibition of Paintings by Sir William Nicholson, exhibition catalogue. London: Leicester Galleries.
30. Sir Kenneth Clark (1942). Exhibition of Paintings by Sir William Nicholson and Jack B. Yeats, exhibition catalogue. London: National Gallery.
31. [s.n.] (1945). Paintings by Sir William Nicholson, exhibition catalogue. London: Roland, Browse and Delbanco.
32. [s.n.] (1947). Sir William Nicholson: Paintings, Woodcuts and Lithographs, exhibition catalogue. London: Arts Council of Great Britain.
33. [s.n.] (1967). Sir William Nicholson: Prints and Drawings, exhibition catalogue. London: Folio Society.
34. [s.n.] (1972). William Nicholson, 1872–1949: centenary exhibition, exhibition catalogue. London: Roland, Browse and Delbanco.
35. Duncan Robinson (1980). William Nicholson: Paintings, Drawings and Prints, exhibition catalogue. [London]: Arts Council of Great Britain. ISBN 0-7287-0245-2.
36. Elizabeth Cayzer (1981). William Nicholson: Woodcuts and Lithographs, exhibition catalogue. London: Maclean Gallery.
37. [s.n.] (1990). William Nicholson, 1872–1949, exhibition catalogue. London: Browse & Darby.
38. Hilary Lane, Penny Johnson (1995). William Nicholson: Landscape and Still-life, exhibition catalogue. Eastbourne: Towner Art Gallery. ISBN 1-871360-08-0.
39. Carola Kleinstück-Schulman, Hermann Kleinstück, Klaus G. Gerhardt (1998). William Nicholson, das graphische Werk: 1895–1905, exhibition catalogue. Darmstadt: Justus von Liebig.

Further reading

• Andrew Graham-Dixon (29 September 2004). 'William Nicholson by Augustus John' Sunday Telegraph, "In The Picture".
• Helena Moore, Hugh Casson (introduction) (1988). The Nicholsons: A Story of Four People and Their Designs: Ben Nicholson, 1894–1982; Nancy Nicholson, 1899–1977; Kit Nicholson, 1904–1948; E.Q. Nicholson, born 1908, exhibition catalogue. York: York City Art Gallery. ISBN 978-0-903281-06-5.