Footnotes

Provenance
Commissioned by Reginald and Pamela McKenna, thence by family descent to the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
Belfast, City of Belfast Museum and Art Gallery, Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Prints by William Nicholson, January-February 1934, cat.no.5 (as On the Grass)

Literature
Lillian Browse, William Nicholson, Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1956, p.101, cat.no.434
Patricia Reed, William Nicholson, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Modern Art Press, London, 2011, p.449, cat.no.561 (col.ill.)

Painted in the summer of 1927 at Mells Park House, Somerset, the present work is the first in a series of conversation pieces by William Nicholson that included Sidney and Beatrice Webb 1928 (London School of Economics) and The Ridley Family 1930 (Private Collection); the best known work features Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine in 1934 Breakfast at Chartwell (National Trust).

Having moved to Sutton Veny in 1923 Nicholson was soon making frequent visits to Mells some 12 miles away. Initially to Lady Horner and her widowed daughter Katherine Asquith and family at the Manor House beside the church, and after 1925 also to Park House close by where her niece Pamela Jekyll (1889-1943) and husband Reginald McKenna (1863-1943) lived with their two sons, Michael (1910-1931) and David (1911-2003). In 1920 Nicholson had painted Pamela's aunt, Gertrude Jekyll (National Portrait Gallery) but the introduction came not from the celebrated garden designer but from their mutual friend, the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens who designed several houses, and memorials, for the families.

From the meagre correspondence that survives it would seem that Pamela McKenna commissioned the painting, rather than her husband who was Chairman of the Midland Bank and formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer in Asquith's wartime coalition government. When a student at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, McKenna had been a notable rower and a member of the winning crew in the 1887 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. He was keen that his sons, who were now both at Eton, should follow in his footsteps.

In the late 18th century the landscaping of Park House gardens included broadening the Mells Stream and creating two lakes separated by a weir that formed a waterfall with stepping stones above. They were part of the footpath from Lily Batch Lodge to Park House. By 1925 the upper lake with its Victorian boathouse was too congested with water weed to be suitable for rowing but McKenna had the lower lake excavated and a small island created near the weir from which a pair-oar could be launched and he could encourage the rowers.

This island appears in the foreground of Nicholson's composition. Here Pamela McKenna is seated on a rug happily reading a book. Behind her and to the right is her younger son David who is in the green-and-white-painted dinghy which he had built himself and launched earlier that year. David later recalled that Nicholson had him continuously tacking in a circle so that he could capture the effect of the wind in the sails, though the wind wasn't always there. The waterfall forms the backdrop to the composition with a marked division between the smooth flow of the water on the right-hand side which is in shadow, while to the left the water cascades out in irregular bursts catching the sunlight with a silvery pool of smooth water beside the island. Michael is striding purposefully over the stepping stones in the direction of Park House carrying an oar on his shoulder. He is followed by a Shetland pony and the family dog, a golden retriever known as Briney. More than half of the canvas is a cloudscape, capturing the sunny-cloudy day with the playful breeze - possibly suggesting that oars are more reliable than sails.

The finished work was hung in the library at Park House. The earlier 18th century house had been destroyed by fire in 1917 and Reginald McKenna had acquired a lease on condition that he rebuild the house, which he did to the designs of Sir Edwin Lutyens 1924-5. The interior design and decoration was by Sir Herbert Jekyll, Pamela's father.

Unusually for Nicholson he executed three figure paintings preparatory to the finished work. Pamela McKenna had first refusal on these. She acquired the two of her sons but not the larger painting Mrs McKenna on the Grass, first exhibited in 1928 as Seaward Island (Reed 564). In this version she is seated on a smaller rug which she shares with the dog Briney. The work is more brightly lit than the other two (which are in Private Collections). While David McKenna in a Dinghy (Reed 563) is similar to the finished work, Michael McKenna in a Landscape (Reed 562) is more a study of the waterfall. Michael is standing on the right with his back to the viewer and is looking diagonally across to the waterfall. He is dressed in a jacket and knickerbockers, whereas in the finished work he appears to be wearing a white shirt, or jumper, and long shorts.

One reason for these studies might have been that Nicholson just enjoyed being at Park House. He found Pamela, like her aunt Lady Horner, very sympathetic. Often he played tennis with Michael and David, another cousin making up a foursome, and while Nicholson did not share their love of music he was happy to take Michael to the National Gallery during the school holidays.

This rapport is manifest in the double 'leaving portrait' of Michael and David that Nicholson executed in three or four sittings in December 1928. The boys had more than fulfilled their father's expectations – both becoming Captain of Boats and Head of School at Eton and gaining places at Trinity College, Cambridge, Michael with a scholarship. The portrait was presented in 1930 (Eton College).

We are grateful to Patricia Reed for compiling this catalogue entry.

This lot is accompanied by an illustrated letter from William Nicholson addressed to Mrs McKenna, which reads 'I'll expect Mike at 1.15 and will trot (if he still wishes it) along with him to the N.G. after lunch. I couldn't go in the morning as my Dentist claims me. Edie and I are just recovering from a painting injury. I have tennis elbow from holding my brush for 8 hours solid (I got to bed at 4.30. hoping that picture was better than it looked.)'