Paris Garden

It is probable that Paris Garden was painted in May 1930, when Winifred and Ben Nicholson, their two children with their nanny, spent a month in Paris at the time of Ben Nicholson’s joint exhibition with Christopher Wood at the Gallery Bernheim-Jeune. While the exhibition was not successful, neither artist selling well, Winifred painted several works including Fruits d’Etoile, Paris, circa 1930 (see C. Andreae, Winifred Nicholson, Farnham, 2009, p. 91), as well as Kate and Cissy in Paris, 1930 (op. cit. p. 90). The Nicholsons stayed at 12 Avenue des Tilleuls, and Winifred clearly enjoyed the flowering chestnuts, despite their relations with Wood deteriorating, Wood later writing that ‘You must understand that your [existence] & mine when I do not work hardly coincides anywhere.’

When Winifred Nicholson moved to Paris in the autumn of 1932, staying till war was imminent in 1938, she lived at 48 Quai d’Auteuil (now Quai Louis-Blériot) and later described the atmosphere, 'There were the years of inspiration - fizzing like a soda water bottle' (the artist quoted in (intro.), An Unknown Aspect of Winifred Nicholson, London, Crane Kalman Gallery, 1976). She became friends with Mondrian, Hélion, Gabo, and knew Brancusi, Giacometti, Arp and Kandinsky, and experimented with abstract art as well as painting Parisian views. 'We lived in white houses with large windows, we ate simple foods - the fruits of the earth. We wore sandals and ran barefoot along the boulevards. We talked in cafés of the new vision, the new scale of music, the new architecture - unnecessary things were to be done away with and art was to be functional'.

We are very very grateful to Jovan Nicholson for preparing this catalogue entry.