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The A to Z of William Nicholson

What begins with an Alphabet chart, shows off some choice Silverware, portrays Queen Victoria, highlights the horrors of World War I and crosses the Ocean? Oh yes, and also includes a Rabbit, the star of a classic children's book. It's the  William Nicholson  exhibition at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester.  This is the first major show of Nicholson's work for more than 20 years and it covers the full and very varied range of his art -- including landscapes, portraits, posters and book illustrations -- in a career that lasted from the Victorian age until the middle of the 20th century. Among his paintings, though, it's the still lifes, often featuring glittering silver, that stand out. This  Silver Casket and Red Leather Box  conveys just how skilled he was at rendering materials and reflections. You can marvel at the accuracy of his reproduction of the silver tea caddy as the original is displayed in a glass case alongside. Of course the reflection i...
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The A to Z of William Nicholson

What begins with an Alphabet chart, shows off some choice Silverware, portrays Queen Victoria, highlights the horrors of World War I and crosses the Ocean? Oh yes, and also includes a Rabbit, the star of a classic children's book. It's the William Nicholson exhibition at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. 

This is the first major show of Nicholson's work for more than 20 years and it covers the full and very varied range of his art -- including landscapes, portraits, posters and book illustrations -- in a career that lasted from the Victorian age until the middle of the 20th century. Among his paintings, though, it's the still lifes, often featuring glittering silver, that stand out. This Silver Casket and Red Leather Box conveys just how skilled he was at rendering materials and reflections.
You can marvel at the accuracy of his reproduction of the silver tea caddy as the original is displayed in a glass case alongside. Of course the reflection in the latter is different: It's you, not the white gloves. The caddy was made by a celebrated 17th-century silversmith, Hester Bateman, whose work Nicholson collected. He praised her "subtle simplicity", and you might say the same about his still lifes. 

Another incredibly luminous example is this painting known as the Gold Jug, though it's actually more of a tankard, and it's possibly brass. 
The vessel seems to shimmer against the rough backdrop, picking up reflections from all around. Queen Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall, told Country Life magazine a few years ago that this work, which hung in Clarence House, was her favourite painting. The work was acquired by the future Queen Elizabeth II in 1942, and it's a wee bit of a coup for the Pallant to have borrowed it for this show. 

But let's get back to the beginning. Nicholson was born in 1872 and studied at Hubert von Herkomer's art school in Bushey, Hertfordshire, where he met his wife Mabel, a small retrospective of whose work we saw last year. He formed an early partnership with Mabel's brother James Pryde, creating bold, revolutionary poster designs under the aliases of J & W Beggarstaff. 

It's Nicholson's printmaking that dominates the first room of this show, with that alphabet we mentioned earlier, his first commission from the London publisher William Heinemann. A for Artist and B for Beggar are on a separate wall, but you can see the 24 letters from C to Z below, with E for Executioner and Q represented by a Quaker. It's a captivating and humorous mix right through the social strata: a Countess, a Dandy and a Lady are accompanied by a Flowergirl, a Milkmaid and a Yokel. 
Some of Nicholson's prints are notable for their large areas of pure black and white, and there's very little shading in this print of the unmistakable Queen Victoria with a Skye terrier. It was published in the New Review to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee, 60 years on the throne.
And it was a great success. The portrait, which could be bought as an original hand-coloured woodcut, proved a popular memento. Oscar Wilde wrote that the one he owned was displayed in his chalet because "every poet should gaze at the portrait of his Queen, all day long." 

In Nicholson's alphabet prints, the letter V stood for Villain, but it was another V from a couple of decades later, The Velveteen Rabbit, that stole our hearts.
The story of the little stuffed rabbit who wanted to become real, written by Margery Williams, was published with illustrations by Nicholson in 1922. The copy on display belonged to his daughter Liza. There's a lot more to admire in this section of this show, including Clever Bill, written as well as illustrated by Nicholson, the tale of a toy soldier accidentally left behind when his owner packs for a holiday, and the amusingly titled Book of Blokes. 

That Mabel Nicholson exhibition we mentioned earlier was held in what was the couple's home in Rottingdean, to the east of Brighton, in the years before World War I. William frequently painted Sussex landscapes, and they're eye-catching and evocative. The monumentality of the cliffs at Rottingdean bursts out at you when you notice the tiny figures in the curve here just before the flat grassy top of the sheer chalk drop starts to rise into a steep hill.
But the beauty and peace of their lives was soon to be shattered: in 1918 he lost Mabel to the flu epidemic, and just before the war ended his son Tony was killed. This painting below is a moving and poignant memorial to those who died fighting. Not a portrait of any individual, it was commissioned by Lady Denman, whose younger brother was also killed in action. It's the first time it's ever been shown in public. 
Nicholson did remarry within a relatively short time. The picture below, Lady in Grey, is believed to show his second wife, Edie, herself a war widow and an artist.
Displayed close by is a dress belonging to Edie made of fabric that was hand-painted by Nicholson; there's a rendering of this portrait among the images on the dress.

Let's end with one of the most striking exhibits in this show: a painting with a curious vertical perspective. Nicholson sailed across the Atlantic at the start of the 1920s and recorded this scene of Sport on the SS Cedric. Nicholson's viewpoint is from the thinly populated upper deck in first class. But all the fun seems to be going on down below on the cheaper lower deck.  
It's a disconcerting view; that glimpse of the sea between the two sections of the ship's superstructure and the hive of activity below. 

This is a fine show that gives you a real feel for Nicholson, the man and the artist; well worth the trip to Chichester. 

Practicalities 

William Nicholson is on at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester until May 10. The gallery is open from 1000 to 1700 Tuesdays to Saturdays and 1000 to 1600 on Sundays and bank holidays. However, it's closed on December 24-26 and on New Year's Day. Full-price admission is £17, including a £2 Gift Aid donation, and you can book online here. Allow yourself perhaps 90 minutes for this extensive exhibition. 

The gallery is just a few minutes walk from Chichester station, to which there's a train every half-hour from London Victoria Mondays to Saturdays. The journey takes about 90 minutes. Hourly trains on Sundays take longer. 

Images

William Nicholson (1872-1949), Silver Casket and Red Leather Box, 1920, Private collection
William Nicholson, Gold Jug, 1937, Lent by His Majesty the King. © Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd 2025. All Rights Reserved
William Nicholson, C-Z from An Alphabet, published 1897, UK Government Art Collection
William Nicholson, HM The Queen (Queen Victoria) from Twelve Portraits, published 1899, Private collection
William Nicholson, Cover illustration for The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, published 1922, Private collection
William Nicholson, Cliffs at Rottingdean, 1909, Southampton City Art Gallery 
William Nicholson, A Soldier of the 1914-18 War, 1917, Private collection  
William Nicholson, Lady in Grey, 1918, Osbourne Samuel Gallery
William Nicholson, Sport on the SS Cedric, 1921, Estate of Mirabel Cecil 

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