1928

GMA 930

This painting is the first of two works by Ben Nicholson showing a cottage at Walton Wood near Bankshead in Cumbria. Even in this, an early work, Nicholson's interest in space, clarity and natural materials is evident. The underlying green colour seems to have been wiped on with a sponge or rag rather than applied with a brush, and suggests the circulation of cool air. The use of flat blocks of colour to structure the surface of the picture shows the influence of Cubism. Nicholson has adopted a deliberately naïve approach but there are also parallels with the simple compositions favoured by his artist father, William.

• Material: Oil on canvas
• Size: 56.00 x 61.00 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © Angela Verren-Taunt 2004. All Rights Reserved, DACS

1935

GMA 2149

Nicholson's first relief painting was made on a trip to Paris in 1933. While working on a painting, part of the thick white ground chipped off, leaving two distinct layers. He exploited this accident in a series of white reliefs made in the mid-to-late 1930s, and continued to produce reliefs throughout his career. Nicholson was influenced by the purity of the works of Mondrian, whose studio he had visited in 1933. His friendships with Barbara Hepworth (they were married in 1938) and Henry Moore may also have prompted this move into three-dimensional art.

• Material: Oil on carved board
• Size: 54.00 x 64.30 cm (interior board: 33.30 x 43.80 cm)
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © Angela Verren-Taunt 2004. All Rights Reserved, DACS

1940

GMA 931

Ben Nicholson and his family moved from London to St Ives in 1939, taking refuge from the threat of wartime bombing. This relocation to the Cornish countryside renewed the artist’s interest in landscape painting. For several years Nicholson’s reliefs had been predominantly white, but he now began to reintroduce colour. His reliefs show the influence of the colours, shapes, textures and light of Cornwall with their hints of grey, warm red and silvery blue. In this work, Nicholson has also carved into the surface of the board to create several different planes. The treatment of space by its division into planes was central to the artist’s work.

• Material: Oil on carved board
• Size: 47.50 x 48.00 cm (interior board: 30.50 x 32.00 cm)
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © Angela Verren Taunt 2006 All rights reserved, DACS

1957

GMA 4773

This drawing shows the harbour at Boscastle in Cornwall. The artist visited the town with his new wife, Felicitas Vogler, in the winter of 1957 during a tour of Cornwall. However, the Cornish landscape had been a great influence on Nicholson since he moved there from London in 1939. Nicholson’s drawings are characterised by a simple but powerful use of line. From the late 1940s he adopted the practice of preparing a number of sheets of paper with a colour wash before selecting the most appropriate piece for each drawing. This work was made on top of an oil wash, which acted as a stimulus for the drawing.

• Material: Oil wash and pencil on paper
• Size: 27.50 x 42.70 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © Angela Verren Taunt 2006. All rights reserved, DACS

1961

GMA 812

This is one of the first works Nicholson made after moving to Switzerland. The light and brightness of his works of this period is often associated with the magnificent natural setting of his new home. Nicholson wrote: "I hold the idea that paintings do not stop as paintings but their ideas project into actual life". With this in mind, he often mounted them onto boards of complementary colour, so that the edge of the picture would not be clear-cut. Texture was important to Nicholson and in this work the surface looks rough and worn, deliberately contrasting with the clear colours and simple lines.

• Material: Oil and pencil on board
• Size: 78.00 x 78.00 cm (interior board: 61.50 x 61.70 cm)
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © Angela Verren Taunt 2006. All rights reserved, DACS