Kate Nicholson

The Artist

Marjorie Parr Galleries, London

Miss Margaret Halbert

Sale, Phillips London, 2 June 1992, lot 49

Private Collection

Belgrave Gallery, St Ives

Sale, Christie's London, 12 December 2014, lot 72, where acquired by the present owner

Jovan Nicholson, Kate Nicholson, Philip Wilson Publishers, London, 2019, pp. 28, 29, 40 (as Still Life with Delphides)

St. Ives, Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives Exhibition, 11 June – 4 July 2011 (as Still Life with Delphides)

When Kate Nicholson went to live with her father Ben Nicholson in St Ives in 1955 her painting began to find her own unique voice. Ben Nicholson had recently moved to Trezion in the centre of St Ives, and the pictures Kate produced during the approximate eighteen months she lived with her father are among her most admired. The encouragement and advice he gave her was invaluable, for as she wrote to her mother, ‘I find I don’t always know straight away which are the best ones’ (see Jovan Nicholson, Kate Nicholson, Philip Wilson Publishers, London, 2019, p.16). He also advised her about framing, and sold her works to his friends, while instructing about the mental quality of a painting. In addition, she enjoyed his house, writing, ‘There are very good working conditions here... There is a lovely light here, clear and sharp… Nearly everything around is paintable’ (op. cit. p. 39). And not surprisingly she enjoyed her father’s still life objects, ‘There are lots of amusing shaped glass things in the house, I have been painting them with the sea plants collected from the cliffs’, the latter being clearly visible in Sylphides (13^th July 1956, op. cit. p. 40). However, what is striking is how she was not dominated by her father’s painting, but found a sympathetic synthesis of both her parents work, whilst creating her own distinctive style and voice.

Jovan Nicholson