Sir William Nicholson

Mushrooms

1940

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Not on display

Artist: Sir William Nicholson 1872–1949
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 349 × 451 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1941
Reference: N05267

Display caption

This picture, painted towards the end of Nicholson's career, was exhibited in London at the Leicester Galleries in January 1941. Mushrooms were a favourite subject, which Nicholson had been painting since the 1920s.

The work is the only example that the Tate Gallery acquired directly from the artist's dealer on its first exhibition. The purchase was part of a campaign by the then Director Sir John Rothenstein to ensure that senior living British artists could be shown at the Gallery by outstanding works.

Gallery label, September 2004

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Catalogue entry

N05267 MUSHROOMS 1940

Inscr. ‘Nicholson 1940’ b.r.
Canvas board, 13 3/4×17 3/4 (35×45).
Purchased from the artist through the Leicester Galleries (Knapping and Clarke Funds) 1941.
Exh: New Year Exhibition, Leicester Galleries, January 1941 (42).
Lit: Browse, 1956, p.113.
Repr: Nichols, 1948, pl.21 (in colour).

One of a series of still lifes of mushrooms, cf. the example of 1927 repr. Browse, 1956, pl.27.

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