Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981)


Tulips Bankshead signed, inscribed and dated 'Winifred Nicholson/Bankshead/1979' (verso)oil on board59.3 x 46.3 cm. (23 3/8 x 18 1/8 in.)
|ProvenanceWith Crane Kalman Gallery, London, 10 April 1981, where purchased byMr & Mrs Fearon-WilsonPrivate Collection, U.K.ExhibitedCrane Kalman Gallery, London, Winifred Nicholson: Recent Paintings, 24 March–15 April 1981Tulips, Bankshead belongs to the series of 'prismatic' paintings that Winifred Nicholson painted at the end of her life, many of them made at her house Bankshead in Cumbria. These were a culmination of many of the ideas she had been exploring throughout her life and were made by exploring the properties of light by looking through a prism, for as she wrote, 'I found out what flowers know, how to divide the colours as prisms do, into longer and shorter wavelengths, and in so doing giving the luminosity and brilliance of pure colour'. For a more in depth discussion of Winifred Nicholson's prismatic paintings see Winifred Nicholson: Liberation of Colour, Philip Wilson Publishers, London, 2016. We are grateful to Jovan Nicholson for compiling this catalogue entry.