William Nicholson

Sir William Newzam Prior Nicholson (1872-1949) was a British painter of still-life, landscapes and portraits. He also worked as a printmaker in techniques including woodcut, wood-engraving and lithography, as an illustrator, as an author of children's books and as a designer for the theatre.

Nicholson was born in Newark-on-Trent on 5 February 1872, the youngest son of William Newzam Nicholson, an industrialist and Conservative MP of Newark, and his wife Annie Elizabeth Prior. From age 9, he attended Magnus Grammar School, first as a weekly boarder, later as a day-boy. He had art lessons from the painter, politician, and art-master William Cubley of Newark-on-Trent. He was briefly a student at Hubert von Herkomer's art school, where he met his future wife Mabel Pryde, known as Prydie, who introduced him to her brother James Pryde (1866-1941). From the autumn of 1891 he attended the Académie Julian in Paris, but after six months returned to Newark.

In the spring of 1893, Nicholson eloped with Prydie and they were married in Ruislip on 25 April. The couple went to live in what had been a pub, the Eight Bells at Denham, Bucks. Mabel’s brother James soon joined them. William and Mabel Nicholson had four children including the celebrated painter Ben (1894-1982) and Annie Mary "Nancy" (1899–1978), artist and wife of the poet Robert Graves. Prydie died in July 1918 in the Spanish flu epidemic. William received an annual allowance of £150 from his father.

From 1893 to 1898, Nicholson collaborated with his brother-in-law James Pryde on poster design and other graphic work including signboard painting and book illustration. They called themselves the Beggarstaffs, or J. & W. Beggarstaff. They have subsequently been referred to as the Beggarstaff Brothers, but they did not use this name.

Nicholson provided illustrations and a cover design for 'An Alphabet', 'An Almanac of Twelve Sports' with words by Rudyard Kipling, and 'London Types', all three published by William Heinemann in 1898. Two years later came 'The Square book of Animals' with Rhymes by Arthur Waugh (W. Heinemann, 1900). 

From about 1900, Nicholson concentrated on painting, encouraged by Whistler. He first exhibited as a painter at the International Society, of which Whistler was President.

From about 1910 until he remarried in 1919, Nicholson's housekeeper Marie Laquelle was also his mistress. Nicholson painted her several times, first as Carlina in 1909; he also painted her daughter Georgette and her second husband Norman Holder.

In October 1919, Nicholson married Edith Minnie, daughter of Sir Lionel Phillips. They had two sons and a daughter. Edie had two children from her previous marriage, and Nancy's daughter Jennie had been born the previous year. Nicholson's books for children all date from the 1920s; around this time, he lived at the Old Manor House, Sutton Veny, Wiltshire.

Nicholson illustrated several of the early books of his son-in-law Robert Graves and The Velveteen Rabbit, a book for children by Margery Williams (1922). He also wrote and illustrated two books of his own for children, Clever Bill (1926) and The Pirate Twins (1929), both published by Faber & Faber. 

From 1935 until his death, Nicholson's companion was the novelist, Marguerite Steen. According to Steen, they met in Andalucia in May 1935, and by mid-June were living together at Nicholson's mews studio in Apple Tree Yard, off Jermyn Street. Nicholson had been separated from Edie for some years, but they remained on good terms; although she promised to give him a divorce, she never did so.

Nicholson had several pupils, including, in the 1930s, Winston Churchill. Churchill wrote that "I think the person who taught me most about painting was William Nicholson".

Nicholson was awarded a gold medal in the graphic works section of the Art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam for his Almanac of Twelve Sports, published 30 years earlier. He was knighted in 1936.

In later life, Nicholson lived at Blewbury in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) where he died on 16 May 1949.