Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) Christmas Present 50.9 x 61.3 cm. (20 x 24 1/8 in.)

Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981) Christmas Present signed, titled and dated 'Christmas Present Winifred Nicholson 1948' (on the frame) oil on canvas 50.9 x 61.3 cm. (20 x 24 1/8 in.) Footnotes: Provenance Alan E. Oliver, by 1963, thence by descent to the present owner Private Collection, U.K. Exhibited London, Lefevre Gallery, Robert Macbryde, Winifred Nicholson, Robert Colquhoun, May 1949, cat.no.27 London, The Tate Gallery, Winifred Nicholson, 3 June-2 August 1987, cat.no.34; this exhibition toured to Newcastle, Laing Art Gallery, 15 August–20 September 1987, Bristol, Bristol City Art Gallery, 26 September–1 November 1987, Stoke, Stoke City Art Gallery, 7 November–13 December 1987, Aberdeen, Aberdeen City Art Gallery 9 January–31 January 1988, Cambridge, Kettle's Yard, 13 February–20 March 1988 Alan E. Oliver was a collector and became friends with Ben Nicholson and Cecil Collins, owning a number of works by the former. As a subtle colourist Winifred Nicholson chose to paint flowers because 'they are the only things that express colour constantly'. She had many favourites, but especially liked to paint spring bulbs in a bowl, and amongst these bulbs hyacinths were a particular favourite: see for example Candlemas I (sold in these rooms 1st July 2020, lot 41). Christmas Present was almost certainly painted at Boothby, Winifred Nicholson's parent's house in Cumberland (as it then was) where she lived from the early 1940s until her father's death in 1959, and is a present after her own heart. For other pictures painted at Boothby (see Winifred Nicholson in Cumberland, Jovan Nicholson, Abbot Hall, Kendal, 2016, pp. 14-15, 50- 53). With the hyacinths wrapped in transparent tissue paper, Christmas Present has echoes of the works Winifred Nicholson made at the beginning of her career in Lugano, Switzerland, where she painted a series of paintings of flowers with tissue paper including Cyclamen and Primulas (Kettle's Yard, Cambridge) and Mughetti (private collection) ( see Winfred Nicholson: Liberation of Colour, Jovan Nicholson, Philip Wilson Publishers, London, 2016, pp. 13, 45-47). This series of pictures was painted at a very happy time after she was firstly married, and similarly in Christmas Present the hyacinths are early harbingers of the brighter spring season to come, expressing one of Winifred's most consistent themes: 'I like promise of things to come. There always turns out such unexpected and exciting things in the colourlessness of the unknown future'. The painting on the reverse depicts the New Zealand born concert pianist Vera Moore, the mother of Brancusi's only son and a close friend of Winifred Nicholson's, who convinced Vera Moore to buy a picture by Mondrian in 1930s when they were both living in Paris (see ibid. p. 21 and 5, Mondrian, Nicholson, In Parallel, Courtauld Institute, London, 2012, pp. 49, 150). For Winifred Nicholson's other portraits of Vera Moore see Brahms/Vera Moore 1930s (Unknown Colour, Paintings Letters, Writings by Winifred Nicholson, ed. Andrew Nicholson, Faber and Faber, 1987, p. 237, and From A Private Collection, Fine Art Society, 2010, no. 12: Woman Playing a Piano (Vera Moore) c. 1930 (Ingram collection). After her performance in the Wigmore Hall the Observer (30th June 1935) remarked, 'Miss Moore is a pleasure to hear... Miss Moore thoroughly understands the limits of pianoforte tone; she plays no note that is not as beautiful as she can make it.' While Vera Moore gave recitals regularly in the 1930s only recently have archival recordings of Vera Moore performing surfaced online. We are grateful to Jovan Nicholson for compiling this catalogue entry. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: AR AR Goods subject to Artists Resale Right Additional Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing