Mabel Nicholson by Lucy Davies /// #11

Featured in The Times, The Telegraph, The Times Literary Supplement, The World of Interiors, Country Life, House & Garden, TAT and by BBC South East.

"The detective work Davies has undertaken with this project to piece together fragments of other people's stories to bring Mabel to life is remarkable." Eliza Goodpasture, The Art Newspaper

"Comprehensive, eminently readable...and well illustrated" Anna McNay, Studio International

"[Davies's] portrait of Mabel as mother left the greatest impression on me." Lucy Scholes, Prospect 

"The paintings testify to an engaging, painterly and thought-provoking artist." Claudia Barbieri Childs, Artlyst

Overview
MABEL PRYDE NICHOLSON (1871–1918) was a portraitist of great skill and tenderness, working mainly within the compass of family life.

The first wife of the eminent Edwardian painter William Nicholson, her story has only since been told as a footnote to his, or to those of her famous children, the abstract artist Ben and architect Kit.

In fact, Mabel was a free-spirited young girl, an adventurous and well-travelled woman; key to a glittering bohemian circle and, as this new book reveals, one of the most significantly overlooked talents of early 20th century British art.

The MODERN WOMEN ARTISTS series of collectablebooks reveal an alternative history of art, telling the stories of important female artists whose work might otherwise be over-looked, overshadowed or forgotten. Read together, these books begin to redress the untold history of modern art.

Book Details
64 page hardback with 27 illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-916515-02-4
Published by Eiderdown Books, July 2024

About the author
Lucy Davies writes for publications including The Times, BBC Culture, The Telegraph, The Times Literary Supplement, World of Interiors and the V&A Magazine. She is the former visual arts editor of The Telegraph and the author of books on Women Painters and British Art. She lives in London.