WITH the death on Monday of Sir William Nicholson, England
loses an artist of whom it has reason to be proud. Practical, resourceful, ambitious, he was, above all, a master of his craft, who applied himself to painting with unswerving loyalty. By his portraits, wood- cuts and "still lifes," and by his share in the partnership of the Beggarstaff Brothers, he deserves to be remembered as one who enriched the national heritage. Posterity may label him a secondary painter, but few artists will venture to deny that, within his limita- tions, he advanced their traditions.
In the late 'eighties, as a young man of sixteen or seventeen study- ing at Herkomer's School at Bushey, Nicholson came under the influence of two very strong Scottish personalities—those of a brother and sister closely linked in sympathy. James Pryde was several years older than Nicholson, and had already made his mark as a painter of "the Glasgow School" ; his sister, Mabel Pryde, Nicholson's senior by a year, was an artist of talent and promise, whose life as a wife and mother soon absorbed her energies. Mabel Pryde was married to Nicholson in 1893.
In 1894 William Nicholson and his wife were to be found with James Pryde in a little cottage at Denham. It was there that Pryde and Nicholson turned to poster designing for a living. Very few of their posters were, in fact, ever seen on the hoardings. Irving paid for, but never used, the greatest of them, that for Don Quixote. But this fine design was reproduced in magazines, and its influence was felt throughout Europe. In retrospect it is difficult not to see the older man, James Pryde, as the imaginative genius of the pair. Yet without Nicholson's practicality the posters would surely never have been made.
Through his famous series of woodcuts, in which the influence of Keene's friend, the elder Crawhall, may be discernible, Nicholson advanced to his lasting successes in portraiture—to "Miss Jekyll," "Professor Saintsbury " and "The Girl With the Tattered Glove." He knew how to please—and at the National Gallery in 1942 the nation thanked him. Pryde advanced to his own achievement in his own way, disregarding the public, painting only what he cared to paint. In recent months the Arts Council has given Scotland a measure of Pryde's achievement, and Londoners will be able to gauge it at the Tate Gallery la:er in the year.
The story has had its sequel. Nicholson's eldest son, Ben, long familiar with the work of his parents and his uncle, found that he, too, had to say Yes or No. He has chosen to be true to his vision.
DEREK HUDSON.
Previous page
