Lilies in Moonlight

Details

WINIFRED NICHOLSON (1893-1981)
Lilies in Moonlight
signed and dated 'Winifred Nicholson 1930' (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
25 x 30 in. (63.5 x 76.2 cm.)
Painted in 1930.
There is an abstract composition on the reverse by the same hand.

Provenance

Purchased by a private collector at the 1930 exhibition.
Purchased by the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, at the 1950 exhibition.
Their sale; Sotheby's, London, 4 June 2003, lot 26, as 'Lilies and Moonlight'.
with Richard Green, London, where purchased by the present owner in December 2004.

Literature

P.G. Konody, 'Berthe Morisot and Winifred Nicholson', The Observer, 30 March 1930.
O. Wittmann (intro.), The Toledo Museum of Art: European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 394, illustrated, as 'Lilies and Moonlight'.

Exhibited

London, Leicester Galleries, An Exhibition of Paintings by Winifred Nicholson, March - April 1930, no. 11.
London, Redfern Gallery, Summer Exhibition, June - September 1950, no. 16, as 'Lilies and Moonlight'.
Michigan, Albion College, The Eye Looks Inward and Outward, 1965, catalogue not traced.

Further details

We are very grateful to Jovan Nicholson for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Pippa Jacomb Director, Head of Day Sale

pjacomb@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7389 2293

Lot Essay

Dating to 1930, it is likely that Lilies in Moonlight was painted at Winifred Nicholson's home, Bankshead, Cumberland. In March that year, P.G. Konody praised the painting in an article titled 'Berthe Morisot and Winifred Nicholson': ‘The entrancing still life entitled Lilies in Moonlight is a picture which in itself would suffice to establish a great artistic reputation, and which should find a home in a public gallery. ... Personally I have no doubt how Winifred Nicholson will be regarded in twenty or thirty years hence’ (op. cit.). In 1950 it was acquired by the Toledo Museum of Art, where it remained until 2003.

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