Until relatively recently, the painter Sir William Nicholson was a much underrated figure in the story of British art. He first established a reputation as a graphic artist in the 1890s and then for the first forty years or so of the twentieth century he painted an array of portraits, still lifes and landscapes of great beauty and inven­tiveness. However, his virtuoso style and devotion to the observed world fell outside the mainstream of modernism and, after his death in 1949, his reputation remained overshadowed by that of his more famous son, the abstract painter Ben Nicholson (see no.79). Today, from the distance of another century, we can better appreciate the brilliance of his technique and his achievements as one of the finest painters of the Edwardian era. Although he remained independent from most artistic groupings and declined membership of the Royal Academy, Nicholson had many connections in liter­ary and theatrical circles. This portrait of the famous Scottish playwright and author J.M. Barrie (1860–1937) was painted during rehearsals for the first performance of Barrie’s best-known work, Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up which opened at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London in December 1904. Nicholson also designed some of the costumes for the play.

We now know Barrie as a complex character, troubled by an early family tragedy. He was born in Kirriemuir, Angus, the son of a handloom weaver. The accidental death of an elder brother in a skating accident when the author was only six years old appears to have had a lasting impact, influencing some of the major themes of his work, including childhood, loss and the possibility of escape into alter­native fantasy worlds. He wrote a series of autobiographical novels before writing successful plays, which included Quality Street and The Admirable Crichton. However, although his output was prolific, it is the ever-popular Peter Pan which continues to dominate our view of his work.

In this portrait, Nicholson successfully evokes Barrie’s notoriously shy and intro­verted character. A short and frail man, prone to bouts of melancholy, the author is shown turned away from us, wearing a baggy jacket and set in a large empty space. The background is articulated only by his own shadow, to which (unlike his creation Peter Pan) he remains firmly attached. Barrie was apparently sceptical about the idea of having the portrait painted, commenting: ‘I have long ceased to be on speaking terms with my face, so why have it painted?’ However, he was pleased with the result, quibbling only over a cheek that he found to be blue and an arm that appeared to him to be too short.

This text was originally published in 100 Masterpieces: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2015.