Ben Nicholson O.M.

(British, 1894-1982)

Diamond 22.7 x 13.9 cm. (8 7/8 x 5 1/2 in.)

Footnotes

Provenance
The Artist, 1930, from whom acquired by
C.S. Reddihough

Exhibited
Leeds, Temple Newsam, September–October 1944 (as Composition 1929)
Cambridge, Kettle's Yard Gallery, Ben Nicholson – the Years of Experiment 1919-39, in association with the Arts Council of Great Britain, 9 July-29 August 1983, cat.no.23 (ill.b&w); this exhibition travelled to Bradford, Cartwright Hall, 10 September-9 October, Canterbury, Royal Museum, 24 October-26 November and Plymouth, City Museum and Art Gallery, 2 December 1983-8 January 1984

Abstraction had been approached by Ben Nicholson as early as 1924 in just a handful of canvases, 1924 (first abstract painting – Chelsea) (collection of Tate Gallery, London), 1924 (Trout) (Private collection) and 1924 (first abstract painting – Andrew) (Private collection). Thereafter, a period of five or six years saw the artist concentrating on more representational still life and landscape images (see Lot 6, 1928, Pill Creek-Cornwall). However, in the early 1920s a seed had been sown and at the turn of the decade abstraction in Nicholson's paintings was about to re-emerge. This new artistic vocabulary did not take full swing until 1933 with his carved reliefs incorporating circles, a number of them pure white. Diamond therefore is all the more astonishing in that it anticipates Nicholson's most celebrated period some three or four years prior to the main event.

Dated on the 1983 Kettle's Yard exhibition label on the backboard to 1929 but on the Arts Council of Great Britain's label to 1930, even the latter year would signal a significant time difference between this gem of a picture being made and Nicholson's obsession with pure abstraction. It would appear, then, to be an extremely rare departure from his representational art at this precise time. Although another less complex and successful painting with the same title is illustrated in black and white on page 8 of John Russell's 1969 book on Ben Nicholson.

Prior to Nicholson's earliest visits to Paris during the years 1921-1923, with his first wife Winifred, when they would visit the city en-route to skiing holidays in Switzerland, his artistic output was largely Edwardian in style. His time spent in the French capital though, observing the avant-garde works of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Jean Arp, among others, ignited a flame in Ben's creative being. It was following these first trips the few seminal 1924 abstracts materialised. The artist himself readily admitted the significance of these sojourns, as Jeremy Lewison comments, 'Later in his life he recalled having seen a painting by Picasso, in a style similar to Man Leaning on a Table (see Fig.1), 1915-16, at Paul Rosenberg's gallery in Paris. In 1948 he stated in a letter to his brother-in-law John Summerson, the architectural historian who at the time was engaged in preparing a book on Nicholson, that the sighting of this picture was,

The real revelation...It was what seemed to me then completely abstract and in the centre there was an absolutely miraculous green – v. deep, v. potent and absolutely real – in fact none of the events in one's life have been more real than that and it still remains the standard by which I judge any reality in my work. It was this painting in among all the other exciting ptgs I saw in Paris 1921-22-23 that were such an inspiration (3 January 1948) (Jeremy Lewison, Ben Nicholson, Phaidon, London, 1991, p.10).

This synthetic Cubist painting made such an impression on Nicholson that it was still informing his art six years later. Whilst the subject of the two works is totally different, the manner in which they are both fragmented into irregular shapes bear remarkable similarity. In Diamond their seemingly haphazard juxtaposition appears random, but has been cleverly designed by the artist so that what is a flat surface appears to have a complex three dimensional structure of many planes, like that of a jewel. The two brilliant white triangles, the lower left of which is spotted black, another technique favoured by Picasso during synthetic Cubism, accentuate the gleaming qualities inherent in a diamond. In contrast, jet black areas are used to denote the inner density of the precious stone. The remaining palette is strongly reminiscent of Picasso's Man Leaning on a Table, with similar red, green, brown and blue introduced. The only additional colour in Nicholson's piece is the yellow. This diverse spectrum again reflects the properties of a diamond when light hits its multi-faceted surface. Diamond is a playful work, which Nicholson clearly took much delight in producing. The small brown triangular and crescent shapes floating over the green and beige on the left of the stone is a fun inclusion, as is the little eye motif in the upper right red triangle, but their purpose is also serious in helping to create a greater illusion of depth. Indeed, the depth of the painting is ultimately underpinned by its semi relief-like nature, with the inclusion of the smudgy black outline surrounding the entire gem stone. This enhances the feeling that the little rock is resting on something real and solid by its casting shadows onto the neutral background.

Although not a large picture, the beauty and power present in Diamond, along with its ingenuity make it one of the stand-out works from The C.S. Reddihough Collection. It is one of the rare paintings by Ben Nicholson from 1929/30 which hint at the extraordinarily creative and radical phase he was about to embark on in the early 1930s.