Woman playing a piano

Details

Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981)
Woman playing a piano
oil on canvas
23½ x 28½ in. (59.6 x 72.4 cm.)
There is a painting of mountain sheep on a cliff by Winifred Nicholson on the reverse.

Provenance

with Austin Desmond, London, where purchased by the present owner.

Exhibited

London, Christie's, The New Patrons: Twentieth Century Art from Corporate Collections, January 1992, no. 158.
London, Crane Kalman Gallery, on loan during the publication of Christopher Andreae's monograph on Winifred Nicholson, June 2009.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Brought to you by

Philip Harley

Check the condition report or get in touch for additional information about this

pharley@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2681

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

This is thought to be a portrait of Vera Moore, who was a close friend of Winifred Nicholson from the 1920s. Vera Moore was a New Zealand born pianist, as well as the partner of Constantin Brancusi. She was also a close friend of the collector Helen Sutherland, who greatly admired her 'heavenly' playing and wrote: 'Vera Moore is lovely when she plays - it is sculpture I think - the strange almost bland unseeing eyes and head of sculpture and inward life somehow. Another friend of mine said she looked as if she had just been told a lovely secret when she played' (quoted in V. Corbett, A Rhythm, A Rite, A Ceremony: Helen Sutherland at Cockley Moor, Penrith, 1996, p. 56).

We are very grateful to Jovan Nicholson for his assistance in preparing the catalogue entries for lots 44, 46 and 48.

More from 20th Century British & Irish Art

View All