- 18
BEN NICHOLSON, O.M. | 1940 (gouache)
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 GBP
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Description
- Ben Nicholson
- 1940 (gouache)
- signed, titled, dated 42 and inscribed on the reverse
- gouache and pencil on card laid on board
- 23 by 23.5cm.; 9 by 9¼in.
Provenance
Waddington Galleries, London
Grosvenor Gallery (Eric Estorick), London, 1958
Billy Wilder
His sale, Christie's New York, The Billy Wilder Collection, 13th November 1989, lot 44
Private Collection, Japan, from whom acquired by the present owner
Grosvenor Gallery (Eric Estorick), London, 1958
Billy Wilder
His sale, Christie's New York, The Billy Wilder Collection, 13th November 1989, lot 44
Private Collection, Japan, from whom acquired by the present owner
Exhibited
Santa Barbara, The Art Gallery, University of California, Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Billy Wilder, October - November 1966, cat. no.39, illustrated p.23.
Literature
P. Viladas, 'A Life in Pictures', House & Garden, April 1989, illustrated p.156.
Condition
Compiled by Jane McAusland, 17/05/2018: Support To support this gouache Nicholson has adhered the paper sheet to a board. The condition of this structure is very good. There are two small areas on the left-hand side that have lifted up at some point in its history and have been put down again onto the board. Medium The medium also is in a very good condition. There are a few small scuffs in place and they are really only visible in a glancing light. The two areas mentioned above have been minimised with a little pigment, though they are also visible in a glancing light. There is no fading and the unevenness in the darker blue areas is the artist's. Note: This work was viewed outside studio conditions. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
We are grateful to Dr Lee Beard for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.
The elegant and intensely coloured composition of the present work was a particular favourite of Nicholson's during the early 1940s - two rectangles float with a crisp clarity and emphatic flatness against horizontal bands of silvery grey and pale blue. These forms are composed of smaller geometric facets of heightened colour: red, yellow and blue, which interact and juxtapose with muted shades of brown and black and white. Nicholson produced nine versions of this composition, in different sizes, each with subtle variations of colour and the arrangement of forms. 1940 (gouache) is one of seven small versions of this composition. The large oils 1940-42 (two forms) and 1940-3 (two forms), are in the collections of Southampton City Art Gallery and The National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Like others pictures in the group 1940 (gouache) was painted during a period of great upheaval for Nicholson, during which time he was adjusting to dramatically changed circumstances brought about by the outbreak of war. In August 1939, as Britain stood on the brink of war, Adrian Stokes had invited Nicholson, Hepworth and their three young children to spend the summer with them in their Cornish home. When war broke out in September the family stayed on there, moving in the new year into another house nearby. In London, Nicholson was at the very heart of artistic developments - pioneering non-representational abstract art with Naum Gabo and Piet Mondrian. He now found himself separated from Hampstead and the vibrant avant-garde hub that existed there, far from his friends and patrons. He wrote, ‘Perhaps this is the blackest moment before the dawn – certainly it’s black alright – the whole thing is completely incredible & I keep on expecting to come to & find it’s all a bad dream, very much overdone’ (Ben Nicholson, quoted in Norbert Lynton, Ben Nicholson, Phaidon Press, London, 1993, p.173). Despite these difficult circumstances, Nicholson continued to paint and to promote his Constructivist ideas. Margaret Mellis, Stokes’s wife, wrote in her account of this time: ‘Ben never stopped working and if he wasn’t actually painting or making reliefs he was writing letters to people who were interested in the [Constructive] movement. They might show works, buy them or write about them. When he wasn’t doing that he was looking round St Ives for new people who might be interested…His aim was always to help people to do good work and get it shown and to stimulate a wider interest in modern art’ (Margaret Mellis, quoted in Lynton, ibid., p.177).
1940 (gouache) can be seen as a transitional work - a culmination of - and perhaps a valediction to - Nicholson's abstraction of the 1930s, and a prelude to his paintings of the later 1940s. The work is clearly a development of his 1937 abstract compositions. Through exact lines and geometric facets of unmodulated colour, Nicholson explores how different colour relationships can construct a sense of space in his compositions. These planes of colour appear to overlap, with the bright white advancing and the black receding, creating a compelling sense of compositional balance between the two hovering rectangles. But the banded back-ground, in three shades of grey blue, and the clear articulation of two distinct forms upon it was a new departure. This might well have been the result of the impact that the coastal landscape had had on the artist. Indeed, Lynton noted that the background of shimmering, horizontal bands of pale colour of 1940 (gouache) are akin to the sand, sea and sky of the Cornish landscape; the silvery blue and grey tones reminiscent of the soft, muted hues of the landscape (Lynton, ibid., p.181). Jeremy Lewison draws attention to the still-life quality of the two forms in this series, as if they were objects arranged on a table. We might combine these two readings and consider the painting in relation to the figurative still lifes that Nicholson produced from 1940 onwards, in which he typically depicted mugs and jugs arranged in front of a window that looked out over the Cornish landscape to the sea beyond.
The elegant and intensely coloured composition of the present work was a particular favourite of Nicholson's during the early 1940s - two rectangles float with a crisp clarity and emphatic flatness against horizontal bands of silvery grey and pale blue. These forms are composed of smaller geometric facets of heightened colour: red, yellow and blue, which interact and juxtapose with muted shades of brown and black and white. Nicholson produced nine versions of this composition, in different sizes, each with subtle variations of colour and the arrangement of forms. 1940 (gouache) is one of seven small versions of this composition. The large oils 1940-42 (two forms) and 1940-3 (two forms), are in the collections of Southampton City Art Gallery and The National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Like others pictures in the group 1940 (gouache) was painted during a period of great upheaval for Nicholson, during which time he was adjusting to dramatically changed circumstances brought about by the outbreak of war. In August 1939, as Britain stood on the brink of war, Adrian Stokes had invited Nicholson, Hepworth and their three young children to spend the summer with them in their Cornish home. When war broke out in September the family stayed on there, moving in the new year into another house nearby. In London, Nicholson was at the very heart of artistic developments - pioneering non-representational abstract art with Naum Gabo and Piet Mondrian. He now found himself separated from Hampstead and the vibrant avant-garde hub that existed there, far from his friends and patrons. He wrote, ‘Perhaps this is the blackest moment before the dawn – certainly it’s black alright – the whole thing is completely incredible & I keep on expecting to come to & find it’s all a bad dream, very much overdone’ (Ben Nicholson, quoted in Norbert Lynton, Ben Nicholson, Phaidon Press, London, 1993, p.173). Despite these difficult circumstances, Nicholson continued to paint and to promote his Constructivist ideas. Margaret Mellis, Stokes’s wife, wrote in her account of this time: ‘Ben never stopped working and if he wasn’t actually painting or making reliefs he was writing letters to people who were interested in the [Constructive] movement. They might show works, buy them or write about them. When he wasn’t doing that he was looking round St Ives for new people who might be interested…His aim was always to help people to do good work and get it shown and to stimulate a wider interest in modern art’ (Margaret Mellis, quoted in Lynton, ibid., p.177).
1940 (gouache) can be seen as a transitional work - a culmination of - and perhaps a valediction to - Nicholson's abstraction of the 1930s, and a prelude to his paintings of the later 1940s. The work is clearly a development of his 1937 abstract compositions. Through exact lines and geometric facets of unmodulated colour, Nicholson explores how different colour relationships can construct a sense of space in his compositions. These planes of colour appear to overlap, with the bright white advancing and the black receding, creating a compelling sense of compositional balance between the two hovering rectangles. But the banded back-ground, in three shades of grey blue, and the clear articulation of two distinct forms upon it was a new departure. This might well have been the result of the impact that the coastal landscape had had on the artist. Indeed, Lynton noted that the background of shimmering, horizontal bands of pale colour of 1940 (gouache) are akin to the sand, sea and sky of the Cornish landscape; the silvery blue and grey tones reminiscent of the soft, muted hues of the landscape (Lynton, ibid., p.181). Jeremy Lewison draws attention to the still-life quality of the two forms in this series, as if they were objects arranged on a table. We might combine these two readings and consider the painting in relation to the figurative still lifes that Nicholson produced from 1940 onwards, in which he typically depicted mugs and jugs arranged in front of a window that looked out over the Cornish landscape to the sea beyond.