Ben Nicholson OM

1928 (foothills, Cumberland)

1928

© Angela Verren Taunt 2021. All rights reserved, DACS

License this image

In Tate Britain

Walk Through British Art: 1910

Free

Artist: Ben Nicholson OM 1894–1982
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 559 × 686 mm
frame: 700 × 826 × 73 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by Miss D. Noyes and Miss E. Noyes 1950
Reference: N05951

Display caption

During the 1920s, Ben and Winifred Nicholson lived in a house close to Hadrian’s Wall in Cumberland. Their lifestyle was simple and traditional; they shared at that time a belief in Christian Science. In their art too they sought to escape the sophistication of established artists, including Ben’s father William Nicholson. Painting mostly landscape, they cultivated a deliberately naïve style which was reinforced by an encounter in 1928 with the untutored amateur painter Alfred Wallis.

Gallery label, September 2016

Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.

Catalogue entry

N05951 FOOTHILLS, CUMBERLAND 1928

Not inscribed.
Canvas, 22×27 (56×68·5).
Presented by Miss Dora and Miss Ella Noyes 1950.
Coll: There is a Lefevre Gallery label on the back but the work seems to have been purchased direct from the artist by the donors (information supplied by the Lefevre Gallery).
Exh: (?) Paintings by Ben and Winifred Nicholson and Pottery by Staite Murray, Lefevre Gallery, July 1928 (5), as ‘Foothills’.
Repr: Hodin, 1957, pl.6.

One of a group of Cumbrian landscapes painted c. 1928–30, e.g. Read, I, 1948, pls.23, 25, 31, 39 and 40; this example was painted in 1928.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II