Mabel Nicholson (1871–1918) was a Scottish artist known for her deft portraiture and intimate interior scenes. Though her work has historically been overshadowed by the fame of her husband and children, she was a significant talent of early 20th-century British art.
Her most prominent works often feature her four children as models, whom she insisted on paying a small fee to foster their independence. The Red Jersey (c. 1912, Aberdeen Art Gallery) for example, is a portrait of her son Kit.
Growing up in a theatre-loving family, Nicholson frequently depicted her subjects in costumes, as in her famous Harlequin series.
Nicholson was a central figure in a glittering bohemian circle which included Walter Sickert and Max Beerbohm. She was part of one of Britain's most significant artistic dynasties and the unsentimental realism and confident brushwork in her own paintings received critical attention in her lifetime.
Mabel Nicholson by Lucy Davies is number 11 in the Modern Women Artists series of mini-monographs about brilliant women artists. Find out more, and start collecting the series, here.
