Sir William Newzam Prior Nicholson

1872 - 1949

William Nicholson was born in Newark-on-Trent, the youngest son of William Nicholson, an industrialist and MP for the town. He had art lessons from the local painter, William Cubley, who had been a pupil of Sir William Beechey and was briefly a student at Hubert von Herkomer's art school in Bushey, where he met his future wife, Mabel Pryde (1871–1918), who introduced him to her brother, James Pryde. In 1891, he attended the Académie Julian in Paris, but after six months returned to Newark. In 1893, William and Mabel eloped and went to live in the Eight Bells former pub at Denham, Buckinghamshire, where they were joined by James and Edward Gordon Craig. William and Mabel had four children, who became closely involved in the arts, including Ben Nicholson. One son died in the war, and Mabel died in 1918 of the Spanish flu. He went on to remarry twice, eventually living with the novelist Marguerite Steen. From 1893 to 1898, Nicholson collaborated with his brother-in-law James Pryde on poster design and other graphic work, including signboard painting and book illustration. They called themselves the Beggarstaffs, or J. & W. Beggarstaff (in recent times known as the Beggarstaff Brothers). He went on to create many well-known and popular designs, perhaps most notably that of Queen Victoria, but he is particularly celebrated as an outstanding painter of still-life.