Ben Nicholson OM, 
British 1894-1982 - 
Desert Edge, 1925; 
pencil on paper, signed, inscribed and...

Ben Nicholson OM, 
British 1894-1982 - 

Desert Edge, 1925; 

pencil on paper, signed, inscribed and dated on the reverse 'Desert Edge Ben Nicholson 1925', 34.3 x 49.5 cm (ARR) 

Provenance: 
with The Leicester Galleries, London, no.4970; 
John C. Brooks Esq. (according to the label attached to the reverse of the frame); 
Jeffrey Judelson (1942-2023) and thence by descent 

Note: 
this delicate early work by Nicholson shows the visual language the artist was developing in the 1920s, alongside his first wife Winifred Nicholson. During the 1920s, the pair spent timing living between Cumberland and Lake Lugano in Switzerland, with landscape central to their practice. Through his soft use of shading throughout this work, Nicholson has created a minimal, yet highly direct sense of the Cumbria landscape, that evokes a sense of child-like wonder at the world. A similar approach to the landscape can be found in the pivotal work from the same period '1925-26 (snowscape)' now in the collection Kettle's Yard, the former home of Jim Ede, that houses one of the most important collections of works by Ben and Winifred Nicholson. Ede particularly collected work from the interwar period with a 'faux-naive' style and Alfred Wallis's work became central to his canon. Wallis's work was to became of central importance to Nicholson's work later in the 1920s and he would introduce it to Ede. 

The present work also demonstrates the early connection between Nicholson and the work of David Jones, another central figure in the collection of Kettle's Yard. Both artists found inspiration in religion, and imbued their work was a sense of spiritual beauty beyond the material world. The apparent simplicity and careful graduation of the artist used of pencil in this work evoke brilliantly a sense of ethereality and spiritual wonder at the natural world.