Penny Day
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Lot 41AR
Sir William Nicholson(British, 1872-1949)La Rochelle, the Harbour 37.8 x 46.3 cm. (14 7/8 x 18 1/4 in.)
28 May 2014, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£20,000 - £30,000
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Christopher Dawson
Head of Department
Ingram Reid
Director
Sir William Nicholson (British, 1872-1949)
La Rochelle, the Harbour
signed with initial 'N' (lower left) and inscribed 'No.1/HARBOUR/La Rochelle' (verso)
oil on panel
37.8 x 46.3 cm. (14 7/8 x 18 1/4 in.)
Painted in 1939
signed with initial 'N' (lower left) and inscribed 'No.1/HARBOUR/La Rochelle' (verso)
oil on panel
37.8 x 46.3 cm. (14 7/8 x 18 1/4 in.)
Painted in 1939
Footnotes
Provenance
With Roland, Browse & Delbanco, London
Captain Sir Malcom Bullock, Bt., and by descent to
Mrs. Peter Hastings
Her sale; Christie's, London, 1 March 1974, lot 128, where acquired by
James Kirkman, on behalf of
Simon Sainsbury
His sale; Christie's, London, 18 June 2008, lot 108
Private Collection
Exhibited
London, Arts Council, Exhibition of British Paintings 1925-1950; Second Anthology, 1951, cat.no.93 (as The Harbour, La Rochelle)
Literature
Lillian Browse, William Nicholson, Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1956, p.109, cat.no.484 (where dated 1938)
Patricia Reed, William Nicholson; a Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Modern Art Press, London, 2011, p.623, cat.no.837 (col.ill)
The present work is one of four known paintings of the view from Nicholson's apartment looking across the Course des Dames quayside to La Rochelle harbour. These works were painted between November 1938 and Spring 1939 and the present work is closest in composition to Harbour in Snow, La Rochelle now in the collection of the Tate Gallery. In each of the paintings it is the maritime activities that have captured the artist's attention. In early March (the month in which the present work was probably painted) Nicholson wrote to his son Ben to describe the joyful view; 'Harbour full of Sailing Fleet with sails from the brightest blue to aggressive red rust and peroxide blonde and pale flesh' (quoted in A. Nicholson (ed.), William Nicholson Painter, London, 1996, p.261). Of the present work Patricia Reed writes that 'the air seems heavy with warm moisture and the pellucid quality of the light suggests the promise of spring.' (Patricia Reed, William Nicholson; a Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Modern Art Press, London, 2011, p.623).