FOR the past 100 years, Mabel Pryde Nicholson has been overshadowed by her husband, the still-life and portrait painter William, and her son Ben, the pioneer of British abstract painting. But Prydie, at the former vicarage of St Margaret’s, Rottingdean, the Nicholsons’ one-time home, rekindles critical attention for the artist, whose “harmonious blend of naturalistic and romantic feeling” delighted contemporary critics.
In common with many women artists, Pryde Nicholson painted what was at hand: her children and interiors of her home. From 1909 to 1914, the Nicholsons lived at Rottingdean’s original 18th-century vicarage, renamed The Grange after sale by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at the turn of the 20th century. Its last clergy occupant, the Revd Arthur Wynne, persuaded the Commissioners to find a more economical village home.
The Grange’s capacity for stylish living delighted Pryde, who wrote to Ben: “It has got a tennis court . . . a small billiard table and plenty of room so I think you will love it.” Ben’s friend the artist Paul Nash observed in 1911: “At every meal we ate blancmange with bright-coloured jam, in keeping with the brightness of the rooms.”
Location and theatricality played an important part in Pryde’s art. Painted in what is now the gallery’s ground-floor meeting room, The Grange, Rottingdean (1911), is a double portrait of the artist’s youngest children, Nancy and Kit. Nancy sits placidly in an armchair, its green and red floral pattern contrasting with the girl’s pastel, pink-dotted dress. Nancy is partially illuminated from an unseen window, casting a distorted white grid on the blue carpet in the left foreground.
Scottish National GalleryMabel Pryde Nicholson, The Grange (c.1911)
Kit stands in the background, hands on hips, wearing a nautical hat, the dynamism of his pose highlighting his sister’s stillness. The receding interiors resemble a stage set. The view, through partially open doors, of self-contained figures echoes the Danish interiors painter Vilhelm Hammershoi, whose paintings were shown in 1907 in London.
Pryde used the 17th-century still-life convention of black backgrounds to make her subject vivid. In Harlequin Asleep (c.1910), a reclining, spangle-skinned figure, possibly Nancy, is given a tactile quality by a horizontal line of sparkling silver-white sequins, seemingly breaking free of the plane. The three Harlequin paintings share a theatricality and draw on auditoriums’ smoky chiaroscuro.
In Nancy with a Rabbit (c.1910), Nancy’s characteristic enigmatic expression is caught in three-quarters profile, and a zigzag circle of beige indicates light falling on the crown of her head, then continuing to her face, neck, and precisely detailed brown and cream rabbit in her arms. The rabbit’s mass is shown through the long, pointed shadow of ear along its body, as if picked out by a spotlight, which also catches Nancy’s fingertips, just above the frame.
Pryde Nicholson died of Spanish flu in 1918, aged 47. Her children held a posthumous exhibition of 28 of her paintings in 1920 at the Goupil Gallery, in London. The Nicholsons’ relationship with St Margaret’s is unknown, but their connection with Rottingdean is demonstrated by the inclusion of the second son, Tony, on the village Great War memorial. The artist’s last letter to Ben, enquiring about his Christian Science beliefs, underline her interest in spirit shown in the paintings: “Will you dear send me the name of a book that you can recommend, that we can read about this new science that you are so interested in, dont forget.”
“Prydie: The Life and Art of Mabel Pryde Nicholson 1871-1918” is in the Grange Gallery, The Green, Rottingdean, Brighton, until 26 August. Phone 01273 301004. www.rottingdeanheritage.org.uk