Bonnie Scotland

Bonnie Scotland, about 1951 oil on board by Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981).

An empty landscape beneath a grey sky; a white sandy foreshore slopes down to a calm blue sea between grassy dunes and smooth rocks. Mountains lie beyond.

This painting of Sandaig in Ross-shire, on the west coast of Scotland was one of the most important places in Scotland for Winifred Nicholson. She stayed there many times throughout the 1950s with her friend the poet Kathleen Raine. They rented a small croft from the writer Gavin Maxwell, who immortalised the place as Camusfeàrna in his Ring of Bright Water Trilogy.

Winifred Nicholson is one of Cumbria’s most important 20th century artists and a major British artist. She was the granddaughter of George Howard (1843–1911), Ninth Earl of Carlisle, an artist and friend of the Pre-Raphaelites. She married the artist Ben Nicholson in 1920 and settled in an old Cumbrian farmhouse in 1924. She spent the majority of her life in Cumbria. We have five works by Winifred Nicholson in the collection.