Easter Monday

Easter Monday, about 1950 by Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981). Oil on board.

Winifred Nicholson’s art is unique. Light and colour are central to her art and she has a national reputation for her colourful flower and landscape paintings. This painting depicts a small window, the left half open, with three ceramic objects on the window ledge. A blue and white jug in the centre is filled with sprays of winter flowering jasmine and daffodils. A single curtain, possibly designed by Ben Nicholson, hangs from brass rings to left of composition. The window looks out over a winter landscape of leafless trees and fields.

This painting explores one of Winifred Nicholson's best known themes. She particularly liked to paint views from her windows in changing light and seasons. She often placed vases of flowers that filled her home in the foreground of her paintings.

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.