DOI issue:
Nr. 173 (July, 1911)
DOI article:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The paintings of William Nicholson
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43447#0046
William Nicholson
justify his treating it with all the sincerity and all
the concentration of mind that he can bring to bear
upon it.
Of his gifts as a colourist it would be difficult to
speak too highly, for he has in this direction faculties
that are quite unusual. It is not so much that he
is a colourist in the popular application of the term
—that is, a lover of gorgeous chromatic effects and
a man who revels in sumptuous arrangements—as
that he appreciates exquisitely how colour should
be combined and how its values should be related
in even the most reticent and subdued harmonies.
The spacing of the colour areas on his canvas, the
adjustment of light tones to dark, the balance of
one tint with another, are all matters for the most
careful consideration in his pictures, and the science
of colour distribution is one which he admirably
understands.
If it were possible to sum up the distinctive
qualities of Mr. Nicholson’s art in a single phrase,
it would probably be nearest
the mark to describe him as
appeal, and this proves, perhaps, best of all how
completely he has mastered the principles which
underlie all great achievement. The man who
has learned what are the elemental things in art has
advanced very far in the practice of his profession.
A. L. Baldry.
[Acknowledgments are due to Messrs. W.
Marchant and Co. of the Goupil Gallery, 5 Regent
Street, and the proprietors of the Stafford Gallery
for giving facilities for the reproduction of Mr.
Nicholson’s pictures. Mr. Nicholson’s colour-
prints were the subject of an illustrated article by
the late Mr. Gleeson White in an early number of
this magazine (December 1897), and among other
works of his which have already been reproduced in
The Studio are the Portrait of James Pry de (July
1901), La Belle Chauffeuse (March 1905), Portrait
of Mrs Curie and The Jewelled Bandalore (March
1906), The Morris (July 1909), and Whiteways,
Rottingdean (August 1910).—The Editor.]
a decorator who had never
allowed himself to become a
slave to convention. His
feeling for design and his
instinct for style give a
decorative character to all
his paintings, and his manage-
ment of colour helps to make
this character more definite,
but it shows, perhaps, most
of all in his love of simplifi-
cation. In his pictures he
eliminates everything that is
not essential to explain his
intention — all unimportant
details, all useless acces-
sories, all the small matters
which do not serve some
plain purpose in his scheme
of composition—and he re-
duces the complexities of
nature to a kind of monu-
mental simplicity which is
the more impressive because
it recognises as significant
only the really vital elements
of the subject. But he has
the art of making his work
simple in effect without
taking away any part of its
legitimate interest and with-
out diminishing its power of
“MASTER ANTHONY BACON”
( By special permission)
BY WII.LIAM NICHOLSON
IO
justify his treating it with all the sincerity and all
the concentration of mind that he can bring to bear
upon it.
Of his gifts as a colourist it would be difficult to
speak too highly, for he has in this direction faculties
that are quite unusual. It is not so much that he
is a colourist in the popular application of the term
—that is, a lover of gorgeous chromatic effects and
a man who revels in sumptuous arrangements—as
that he appreciates exquisitely how colour should
be combined and how its values should be related
in even the most reticent and subdued harmonies.
The spacing of the colour areas on his canvas, the
adjustment of light tones to dark, the balance of
one tint with another, are all matters for the most
careful consideration in his pictures, and the science
of colour distribution is one which he admirably
understands.
If it were possible to sum up the distinctive
qualities of Mr. Nicholson’s art in a single phrase,
it would probably be nearest
the mark to describe him as
appeal, and this proves, perhaps, best of all how
completely he has mastered the principles which
underlie all great achievement. The man who
has learned what are the elemental things in art has
advanced very far in the practice of his profession.
A. L. Baldry.
[Acknowledgments are due to Messrs. W.
Marchant and Co. of the Goupil Gallery, 5 Regent
Street, and the proprietors of the Stafford Gallery
for giving facilities for the reproduction of Mr.
Nicholson’s pictures. Mr. Nicholson’s colour-
prints were the subject of an illustrated article by
the late Mr. Gleeson White in an early number of
this magazine (December 1897), and among other
works of his which have already been reproduced in
The Studio are the Portrait of James Pry de (July
1901), La Belle Chauffeuse (March 1905), Portrait
of Mrs Curie and The Jewelled Bandalore (March
1906), The Morris (July 1909), and Whiteways,
Rottingdean (August 1910).—The Editor.]
a decorator who had never
allowed himself to become a
slave to convention. His
feeling for design and his
instinct for style give a
decorative character to all
his paintings, and his manage-
ment of colour helps to make
this character more definite,
but it shows, perhaps, most
of all in his love of simplifi-
cation. In his pictures he
eliminates everything that is
not essential to explain his
intention — all unimportant
details, all useless acces-
sories, all the small matters
which do not serve some
plain purpose in his scheme
of composition—and he re-
duces the complexities of
nature to a kind of monu-
mental simplicity which is
the more impressive because
it recognises as significant
only the really vital elements
of the subject. But he has
the art of making his work
simple in effect without
taking away any part of its
legitimate interest and with-
out diminishing its power of
“MASTER ANTHONY BACON”
( By special permission)
BY WII.LIAM NICHOLSON
IO