Winifred Nicholson 1893-1981
Quarry Bec, c.1930
oil on board
20½ x 22 ins


Exhibited
Alex Reid & Lefevre Gallery



In 1924, Winifred and her then husband Ben Nicholson went to live in Bankshead, a remote farmhouse in North Cumberland. Over the next seven years until their separation the house became a focus for many other painters who came to live and work there for extended periods -Ivon Hitchens, Paul Nash and Christopher Wood among them.
This painting, dating from a particularly happy and creative time in her life, reflects both her strong attachment to a landscape her family had lived in for many generations -'the call of the curlew is my call, the tremble of the harebell is my tremble of life' she once observed . It also reflects something of the impact that working alongside Christopher Wood, particularly during the Spring of 1928, had on her style.
This is very evident here in the commitment this painting shows to a certain innocent primitivism of approach that quite deliberately rejects academic conventions in favour of a simplified, almost child-like attitude to composition in which rich, gleaming colour creates an intense dream-like mood.