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Creator:
Ben Nicholson, 1894–1982
Title:

July 15 1949 (St Ives harbour)

Date:
1949
Medium:
Oil and pencil on canvas
Dimensions:
13 7/8 x 15 7/8 inches (35.2 x 40.3 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Possibly inscribed on verso

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
© Estate of the Artist
Accession Number:
B2006.14.7
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B2006.14.7FR
Subject Terms:
abstract art | boat | buildings | Cubist | harbour | houses | landscape | water
Associated Places:
Cornwall | England | Europe | Saint Ives | United Kingdom
Access:
Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:54281
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Ben Nicholson lived near St. Ives in Cornwall from 1938 to 1958. During the Second World War he produced a number of small views through an open window. After experimenting with abstract white reliefs in the 1930s, Nicholson became more ambivalent about abstraction. In the late 1940s he wrote that “the kind of painting I find exciting is not necessarily representational or nonrepresentational, but musical and architectural.” This view of St. Ives depicts boats in the harbor glimpsed across the neighboring rooftops, while the foreground objects on the windowsill appear as a series of interlocking shapes.

Gallery label for A Decade of Gifts and Acquisitions (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-06-01 - 2017-08-13)


Ben Nicholson lived near St. Ives in Cornwall from 1938 to 1958. During the Second World War he produced a number of small views through an open window. After experimenting with abstract white reliefs in the 1930s, Nicholson became more ambivalent about abstraction. In the late 1940s he wrote that “the kind of painting I find exciting is not necessarily representational or non-representational, but musical and architectural.” This view of St. Ives depicts boats in the harbor glimpsed across the neighboring rooftops, while the foreground objects on the windowsill appear as a series of interlocking shapes.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016


For nearly ten years Nicholson lived near St. Ives in Cornwall. During the war he produced a number of small views through an open window, of which this is a fine example. Here the view of St. Ives is superficially representational with its depiction of boats in the harbor glimpsed across the neighboring rooftops. Yet the foreground objects on the windowsill are already slipping into pure abstraction, becoming nothing more than a series of interlocking shapes. After experimenting with the austerity of his abstract white reliefs in the 1930s, Nicholson was more ambivalent about abstraction by this time. In the late 1940s he wrote that "the kind of painting I find exciting is not necessarily representational or non-representational, but musical and architectural."

Gallery label for Connections (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-05-26 - 2011-09-11)

Art in Focus : St Ives Abstraction (Yale Center for British Art, 2013-04-12 - 2013-09-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Connections (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-05-26 - 2011-09-11) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Sylviane Gold, In the Abstract, a Coastal Scene Materializes, A Review of 'Art in Focus: St. Ives Abstraction’ at Yale Center for British Art , New York Times, New York, July 14, 2013, metropolitan Section, p. 9, Yale Internet Resource [ORBIS]

Matthew Hargraves, "Yale Center for British Art joins Art UK", ArtUK, 24 June 2019, Available online https://artuk.org/discover/stories/yale-center-for-british-art-joins-art-uk [Website]

Norbert Lynton, Ben Nicholson, Phaidon, London, 1993, p. 229, pl. 213, NJ18 N51 L95 1993 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Jovan Nicholson, Kate Nicholson, Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd, London, p. 14, NJ18.N514 N53 2019 (LC) Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 1, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

St Ives abstraction, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2013, cover, p. 21, V 2475 (YCBA) [YCBA]

The Artist's Notebook, Artist, 40, December 1950, p. 96, Not available at Yale


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