Shingle Street, c.1907 (oil on canvas laid on board)

From Counterpoint Modern Realism 1910 - 1950. Shingle Street lies at the very end of Orford Beach in Suffolk, between Felixstowe and Aldeburgh. It is an isolated spot where the buildings appear to stand out against the horizon and, as Nicholson has emphasized here, the expanse of sky seems immense. Nicholson’s low horizon allows the clouds to dominate, perhaps in conscious memory of Constable’s painting of the Suffolk landscape. This too accentuates the line of houses, which act as a division between shingle and sky. Using a restricted palette and making use of the texture of the canvas board on which it is painted, Nicholson creates a deceptively simple but immensely skilful composition of great subtlety and ingenuity.