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BEN NICHOLSON (1894-1982) July 14 -1954 (viper), 1954 Oil, gouache, watercolour, pencil, crayon and oil wash on paper, laid on Artist's board Signed 'Ben Nicholson', titled and dated, verso 58.5 x 40.5 cm (23 x 16 in) Provenance Gimpel Fils, London, where acquired by Dr. Ricardo Jucker Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London Flavia Ormond Fine Arts, London Private Collection Exhibited London, Crane Kalman Gallery, Ben Nicholson, 11 April – 11 May 2019 Literature H. Read (intro.), Ben Nicholson, Work Since 1947, Volume 2, Lund Humphries, London, 1956, pl. 52 (ill. col.) The original owner of this dynamic 1954 Ben Nicholson, Riccardo Jucker (1909-1987), was an Italian entrepreneur based in Milan, who built an important collection of modern art focused on Cubism, Futurism and Metaphysical painting. Today, a large part of his collection is displayed in the Museo del Novecento, Milan. Included is Picasso's 1912-14 oil on canvas, La Bouteille de Bass, among the Jucker highlights which stylistically links the 1950s works of Ben Nicholson with this period of Cubism. Nicholson's first contact with the Parisian avant- garde occurred during 1921-23 with his first wife, Winifred, en-route to skiing holidays in Switzerland. He saw a Cubist Picasso at Paul Rosenberg's gallery which he described as 'the real revelation'. The experience continued to inform his work through the 1930s and 40s and by the early 1950s entered a new phase. Polyphony is a word repeatedly used by the art historian Norbert Lynton to describe their style. He even referred to them as the 'polyphonic series of vertical compositions.' In July 14 – 1954 (viper) the firm black pencil lines are used to depict various tabletop vessels: mugs, bottles and vases. Despite their ambiguity we recognise them as such through familiarity with his earlier paintings. Behind the strongest mark making, fainter lines are employed so that a sense of depth is introduced. This is echoed in the rich opaque use of colour upper right and the distinctly faded and transparent use of the same colours (red and blue) in the centre of the composition. Given the complexity of these arrangements their harmonization is even more impressive. The sheet of paper which the main image sits on is anchored to the washed backboard by the two curved pencil lines overhanging the right edge. The board itself has an uncanny resemblance to the background of the Museo del Novecento's Picasso. Norbert Lynton remarked on this body of Nicholson's work: The polyphonic series of vertical compositions continued into and through the mid-1950s, a strong, widely varying sequence produced at a time of emotional uncertainty and difficulties. Some of the compositions are large, up to nearly two metres high (there is also a horizontal composition of 213.5 cm); some are of a modest, domestic size. One could think of these as chamber music, the others as orchestral and perhaps symphonic, but we must not assume that the smaller works are slighter in any way, any more than the quartets became with Mozart and Beethoven. (Norbert Lynton, Ben Nicholson, Phaidon, London, 1998, p.144) As Lynton observes, the more 'domestic size' paintings are just as, if not more, powerful. July 14 – 1954 (viper) demonstrates this with its multi layering of washes and intricate interlocking of lines, along with Nicholson's characteristic use of heavy black shading at this time, to accentuate depth. The overall impression is one of harmony, and it is clear to see why the painting appealed to Riccardo Jucker's avant-garde sensibility. 80