Grosvenor Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the family o▨f the present owner in ꦍ1959

Executed on a board mounted to a larger board. Colors on image board are bright and fresh. Minor surface dirt. Mount board: Minor abrasions to extreme edges of mount board with associated paint loss -- inch long loss just left of center top edge; quarter and half-inch losses at top edge left of center; two nailhead size abrasions to left edge above center. Otherwise good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This work, in addition to White Form (lot 301), comes from the collection of I. A. L. and Barbara Diamond in Los Angeles. I. A. L Diamond wrote stories and screenplays in Hollywood during a four decade career. After collaborating with Billy Wilder on the screenplay for Love in the Afternoon in 1957, Diamond worked closely with Wilder for the rest of his career, writing screenplays with Wilder for 12 movies between 1957 and 1981. Their screenplays were nominated three times for Academy Awards (including the screenplay for Some Like it Hot in 1959), and they won an Oscar for their original screenplay for The Apartment in 1960 which also won for Best Picture. The Diamonds were buying art actively in the late 1950s through the 1960s and t💙heir focus was on Contemporary Art of the day, with a special affinit♔y for European Contemporary Art. The current work undoubtedly held a prominent position in this important collection.

In the current work, Nicholson depicts a view of the town of Newlyn, a small coastal town in southwest Cornwall, England. Nicholson left London for Cornwall in September of 1939 with his then wife, Barbara Hepworth. The artists found boundless inspiration in the coastal towns of Cornwall and in 1949, the year before Nicholson painted the current work, they became founding members of the Penwith Society of Arts in Cornwall -- a society of like-minded artists and craftsmen active in the coastal towns. The town of Newlyn centered around an dynamic harbor and relied then, as it does today, on the fishing industry. In Newlyn, Nicholson conveys the activity of this harbor as viewed through the frame of an open window -- an art♑ꦛistic device which he employed often during this period in his career. In contrast to the pure abstraction of his work from the late 1930s and early 1940s, the artist here allows for the suggestion of objects and details in his artistic interpretation of the landscape.  The 1950s were to be  incredibly productive and creative years for Nicholson and the current work reveals the artistic fervency that initiated this.

Fig. 1 The artist in his St. Ives Studio, circa 1951