Road Along the Roman Wall (Landscape with Two Buildings), 1926

This is one of several paintings made by Winifred Nicholson at Banks Head, the Cumberland farmhouse which she and Ben Nicholson bought in late 1923. The view is of a nearby building and landscape.

Nicholson’s habit of painting from life meant that she worked quickly, usually completing a work in a single sitting. Her son Jake recalled that her subjects were restricted geographically by a lack of transportation and the encumbrance of the materials. The size of this ambitious canvas must have considerably exaggerated these problems. Nicholson’s practice, which already ensured a speed of execution and generally thin application of paint, is here stretched to its limits. Large areas of canvas remain exposed in the sky, and most are worked only hastily.