Winifred Nicholson was born in Oxford in 1893 as Rosa Winifred Roberts. From early on in her childhood she was encouraged to paint by her grandfather, the artist and friend of the pre-Raphaelites, George Howard, Earl of Carlisle. In 1912 she began her formal studies at the Byam Shaw school of Art, London.
Winifred was 27 when she met Ben Nicholson in 1920, they married within the year and
worked alongside each other in Italy, France, Devon and Cornwall and spent their winter at a villa on the mountainside above Lake Lugano in the Italian Swiss Alps.
In 1924 they acquired an old farmhouse, Bank’s Head in Cumberland. Artists such as Paul
Nash, Ivon Hitchens and Christopher Wood visited the Nicholsons there. Winifred joined the ‘7&5’ society in 1925 and exhibited alongside Ben Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Henry Moore, John Piper, Barbara Hepworth and David Jones for ten years.
Winifred and Ben had three children between 1927 and 1931. Ben started a relationship with
Barbara Hepworth and Winifred moved with the children to Paris. They separated in 1932,
though the two maintained a friendship for the rest of their lives.
In France, Winifred met many artists including Alberto Giacometti, Jean Arp, Brancusi,
Kandinsky, Naum Gabo and Piet Mondrian. By 1938, with war looming Winifred returned to
Britain, to her house in Cumberland, also persuading Mondrian to travel with her to escape
the threat of Fascism.
Winifred was a keen traveller and, together with the poet Kathleen Raine, visited the Hebrides and Western Scotland during the early 1950’s, painting lyrical and light filled landscapes and flower paintings.
In 1969 a Retrospective exhibition was held at Abbot Hall art gallery in Kendal. Shortly
afterwards, twelve of her paintings were shown in a touring exhibition that opened at the
Hayward Gallery, London. In 1972 Winifred Nicholson was given a solo exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge.
In 1979 Winifred was given a Retrospective Exhibition, organised by the Scottish Arts Council which travelled to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Carlisle, Newcastle and Cornwall. In 1987 Winifred was given a Tate Retrospective Exhibition. In 2014, her grandson Jovan Nicholson curated an exhibition of Winifred and Ben Nicholson’s work at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.
Winifred died at Bank’s Head in 1981.