Crane Kalman, London, where acquired by Kathleen Raine in 1981 
Acquired from the above ꦿby The Dartingtonꦦ Hall Trust in 1987

London, Crane Kalman Gallery, Winifred Nicholson, Recent Paintings, March - April 1981;
Dartington Hall, High Cross House, c2000 - 2010.

Temenos, No. 8, London 1987, pp.164-165;
Christopher Andreae, Winifred Nicholson, Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2009, illustrated fig.19, p.27.

Original canvas. There is a painting of trees on the reverse of the canvas. The surface appears in good original condition. Ultraviolet light reveals small areas or retoucing in the upper left corner, near the lower left edge and in the lower right and upper right corners. There also some small flecked retouchings about the left half of the upper edge. Some of these are faintly visible to the naked eye as very slightly discoloured areas. Held under glass in a white composite frame with a mauve coloured wooden inset; unexamined out of frame. Please telephone the department on 0207 293 6424 if you have any questions about the present work.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Winifred Nicholson's preoccupation with colour dominated both her written and painted works; especially in the later years of her life she was fascinated by the effect of light on prisms and the vast array of colours this produced. In 1944 she wrote an article for the World Review titled 'Liberation of Colour' whic𓆉h was illustrated with a chart divided into the seven colours of the rainbow. Winifred charted the depths of each individual shade, naming seven ascending and seven descending tones for each primary colour. The descending and ascending shades of violet were listed for example as pale lilac, lavender, heliotrope, purple, maroon, damson, chocolate, amethyst, wine, musk rose, vieux rose, mulberry, prune and lead.

This interest in the multi-layering of colours became increasingly prominent in her later work, such as in Rainbow of Light, Rainbow of Darkness (c.1977) which is a fine example of the way Winifred integrates the depths and shades of colours, especially in relation to the effect of light. Winifred used the prism in many of her still life and landscape works, such as in the present painꦛting, which depicts a beech tree in her garden observed through a prism from an upstairs room in Winifred's Cumberland home, Bank𒁏s Head.

The poet Kathleen Raine had a long working relationship with Winifred. They first met in 1948 and during the 1950s travelled regularly together to the Hebrides. When First Prismatic was painted, Raine divided her time between London and Cumbria, where she owned a cottage not far from Winifred's house. At the time of Winifred's Tate retrospective exhibition in 1987 Raine organised a selection of Winifred's pictures to be illustrated in the journal 'Temenos', including Alwoodii Pinks in a Glass Vase (lot 128) and Flowers, Dulwich (lot 127).

We are gratefuไl to Jovan Nicholson for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.