15 Facts About Winifred Nicholson

Winifred Nicholson was married to the painter Ben Nicholson, and was thus the daughter-in-law of the painter William Nicholson and his wife, the painter Mabel Pryde.

Winifred Nicholson was the mother of the painter Kate Nicholson.

Winifred Nicholson was a colourist who developed a personal impressionistic style, concentrating on domestic still life objects and landscapes.

Winifred Nicholson often combined the two subjects as seen in her painting From Bedroom Window, Bankshead showing a landscape viewed through a window, with flowers in a vase in the foreground.

Winifred Nicholson was the eldest of the three children of the Liberal Party politician Charles Henry Roberts and Lady Cecilia Maude Howard, daughter of the politician George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle, and of the activist Rosalind Howard.

Winifred Nicholson attended the Byam Shaw School of Art in London from about 1910 or 1912 until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, and again from 1918 to 1919.

In 1919, Winifred Nicholson travelled with her father, who had been Under-Secretary of State for India, to Burma, Ceylon and India.

In 1924, Winifred Nicholson bought Bankshead, a farmhouse built on an ancient Roman castle forming part of Hadrian's Wall, not far from the town of Brampton in Cumbria, and close to the family seat, Naworth Castle.

In 1924, Winifred Nicholson, who believed that she was unable to conceive, joined the Christian Science movement, which was in vogue in Britain at that time.

Winifred Nicholson and Ben eventually had three children: Jake was born in 1927, Kate in July 1929, and Andrew in 1931.

In 1932, Winifred Nicholson moved with her three children to Paris, and from then until 1936 Ben often visited them there, sometimes with Hepworth.

Winifred Nicholson painted prolifically throughout her life, largely at home but on trips to Italy, Greece and Scotland, among other places.

Winifred Nicholson had a lifelong fascination for rainbow and spectrum colours and in the 1970s she made particularly strong, innovative use of such colours in many of her paintings.

Winifred Nicholson left some written accounts of her thoughts on colour.

Winifred Nicholson supported the Taiwanese artist Li Yuan-chia, who had previously worked in Milan and London.