Beschreibung:

Winifred Nicholson (British, 1893-1981)Flowers in Snow, Bankshead
signed and dated 'Winifred Nicholson/1967' (verso) and titled 'FLOWERS IN SNOW BANKSHEAD' (on the canvas overlap)
oil on canvas
56 x 76.4 cm. (22 x 30 in.)FootnotesProvenance
The Artist, from whom acquired directly by the family of the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.
Literature
Christopher Andreae, Winifred Nicholson Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2009, p.134, cat.no.120 (col.ill.)
Painted with a thickly textured impasto surface, Flowers in Snow, Bankshead is perfectly evocative of the crisp blanket of winter or early spring snow which can turn the landscape startlingly bright in the coldest months of the year. Against a background of icy blue and white, in which the suggestion of wintery peaks can be seen beyond, and against a powdery, pale sapphire sky, the bright and sunny blooms of daffodils and irises can be seen bravely holding their own. Painted in vibrant strokes of yellow, orange and purple, they represent the optimism that spring brings, the coming of the first pale rays of sun, and the promise that winter will soon be over for another year. Their leaves shoot upwards with vigour, stretching towards the light.
Nicholson writes beautifully about her preoccupation with flowers, in her essay The Flower's Response: 'I like painting flowers – I have tried to paint many things in many different ways, but my paint brush always gives a tremor of pleasure when I let it paint a flower – and I think I know why this is so. Flowers mean different things to different people...to me they are the secret of the cosmos. This secret cannot be put into image, far less into the smallness of words – but I try to. Their silence says to me – 'My rootlets are moving in the dark, in the wet, cold, damp mud – My leaflets are moving in the brightness of the sky – My flowerface has seen the darkness which cannot be seen, and the brightness that is too bright to see – has seen earth to sun and sun to earth.' (Winifred Nicholson quoted in Andrew Nicholson (ed.), Unknown Colour: Paintings, Letters, Writings by Winifred Nicholson Faber and Faber, London, 1987, p. 216). This evocative statement sums up particularly well why she related so closely to the burst of new growth in spring time, and the first brave tendrils of green that dare to poke up through the frozen earth to bloom again, year on year.
Nicholson also lent particular emphasis to colours and what they represented to her. Green, blue, yellow and white form the foundation of the present work and it is clear that the symbolism she saw in colours lends an extra layer of meaning to the palette she chose. As she wrote: 'Who has heard of blue talking to yellow, the green of conversation? I will tell you when I heard it before – I was high up on a spacious mountainside, below me was a valley with an unseen river flowing along its way. The sky was very distant, the air jasper clear, the scent of herbs all around me. I sat still. Far away in the distance I heard the sheep bells, a flock coming down the valley. The tone of the bells reverberated inconsequently as the sheep moved and browsed, the older members of the flock moving steadily, the lambs gambolling and frolicking with them.' (Winifred Nicholson 'Can The Blind See Colour Green?', quoted in ibid., pp.236-7).
Writing so evocatively, she conjures a sensory world in which there is a synaesthetic delight in the coming of spring, and it is easy to imagine a stream of melting snow trickling by just out of sight in the present lot, as we inhale sharp breaths of the icy clear air that she speaks of. With the promise of new life just round the corner, and the coming of lambs in the fields, Flowers in Snow, Bankshead is a striking example of her wholehearted appreciation of, and celebration for, the natural world.
The present lot (and lot 50) come from a Private Collection whose family had a close friendship with the artist. The family would visit Winifred at her home Bankshead, Cumbria in the 1970s, and these trips were recalled as 'full of fun and enjoyment, especially with her son's dog Sally and long walks through the country lanes. Winifred always had lots of time for us children, playing games and showing us interest. My siblings and I remember the feeling of Winifred's incredible warmth and affection. She was always very welcoming to us and the many other friends and family visiting whilst we were there.' Winifred would also visit the family in London when she was in the capital city, and visit the nearby Christian Science Church, through which the friends met.
We are grateful to Jovan Nicholson for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.