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William Nicholson was born at Newark, Nottinghamshire and, aged sixteen, went to study with the well known artist Hubert von Herkomer. However the latter didn't approve of some of Nicholson's art and when he described a work as a piece of Whistlerian impudence Nicholson resigned. He moved to Paris and studied for six months at the Academie Julian before returning to England.
In 1893 Nicholson married the painter Mabel Pryde and their first son Ben, born the following year, went on to become the famous painter and sculptor. Also during the 1890s Nicholson concentrated mainly on printmaking and designing posters with his brother-in-law James Pryde under the name of J.& W.Beggarstaff. The posters were clearly influenced by the examples of Jules Cheret and Toulouse Lautrec which Nicholson had seen in France.
In 1897 Nicholson made a woodcut of Queen Victoria which really helped to establish his name with the public. During the same year he worked upon An Illustrated Alphabet for the publisher William Heinemann which was reasonably successful financially but was probably more important in providing Nicholson with an opportunity to develop his talents as an engraver. In 1898 produced two further series of prints for Heinemann entitled An Almanac of Twelve Sports and London Types.
After 1900 Nicholson concentrated more on oil paintings and although he produced landscapes and still lifes he really established himself as a portrait painter. His portraits Marie Tempest with a Blenheim spaniel [1903] and The Girl with a tattered glove [1909] are perhaps two of his best known paintings from this period. He also painted portraits of several noted writers, for example Max Beerbohm, J.M.Barrie and Rudyard Kipling.
After the First World War Nicholson continued to be a highly acclaimed portrait painter and himself said he had relays of sitters every twenty minutes. He was appointed a Trustee of the Tate Gallery from 1934-39 and knighted in 1936. There have been several important retrospective exhibitions of his work since his death, most recently at the Royal Academy in 2004-05. |
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