NICHOLLS, Bertram

1883 - 1974

Bertram Nicholls was born at Didsbury, near Manchester on 26 September 1883, youngest child of William Andrews Nicholls (1842-7 August 1925), a fruit merchant, and his wife Mary née Allen, who married at Kinver St Peter, Staffordshire on 9 April 1866. Bertram was educated at Manchester Grammar School and in 1901, a 17-year-old, living at 10 Wardle Road, Sale, Cheshire with his parents, 58-year-old William and 56-year-old Mary, with two siblings Ernest 25 and Maud 20, both born at Didsbury. Bertram studied with Reginald Barber (1851-1928), a local portrait painter, and at the Slade School of Fine Art 1901–1904 and in 1904 he studied Velasquez in Madrid. On his return to England, he worked with Frederick Jackson (1859-1918), one of the Staithes Group of artists, with whom he learnt landscape painting 'en plein air'. In 1911 he met the New York artist Frank Mura (1861-1913) and later settled in Sussex, near to Mura, whose work had a formative influence on his own art, two further important influences were Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) and Richard Wilson (1714-1782). In 1911, Nicholls was a 27-year-old painter artist, boarding at Roslin Hall, Belgrave Road, Torquay and he married at Steyning, Sussex in 1912, Mary Laura Eva Phillips (23 December 1883-27 October 1968) and in 1921 they were living at Wilmshurst, Steyning, Sussex with a 5-year-old son Oliver. A landscape painter and a teacher who exhibited at the New English Art Club in 1905 and with Rowley Smart at 48 Grosvenor Chambers, Deansgate, Manchester in 1908. He also exhibited the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts from 1914, where he was President 1921–1931, at the Royal Academy from 1912, the Royal Society of British Artists 1931–1947 and the Fine Art Society. He had his first one-man show at Barbizon House in 1924 and the year before had exhibited at the Ipswich Fine Art Club an oil 'Blythburgh' and where he also exhibited in 1932, from 9 Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, London, an oil 'Villanova'. In 1939, an artist, living at Hardham House, Goring Road, Chanctonbury, Sussex with his wife and their son Oliver (1916-1980). Bertram Nicholls died at Larkspure, Newling Way, Worthing, Sussex on 23 December 1974. He signed his works 'Nicholls' disjointed and a date.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Wilmshurst, Steyning, Sussex
1912 617 Quarry at Lewes
1914 830 Assisi
1915 191 Assisi
         807 Landscape
1916 763 The Mill Pond
         770 From White Horse Lane
         982 Coombes
1919 426 Souvenir
1920 428The Saddler's Garden
         658 The Quarry, Lewes
1921 375 Drying the Sails
         402 The Mystery Ship at Shoreham
1922 2 The Bridge
         480 Swanage Tower
         486 The Windmill
1923 176 Blythburgh
         485 Stopham Bridge
1924 430 Evening in the Harbour
         443 Maidstone
         534 King's Barns, Steyning
from c/o D. Croal Thomson, Esq., Barbizon House, 8 Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, West London
1925 41 A Town in Tuscany
from Steyning, Sussex
1927 148 Subiaco
         567 Le Mamelle D'Italia
1929 102 Pieve de Tremosine
         444 Monte Baldo from Tremosine
         511 The Harbour at Malcesine
from c/o 8 Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, West London
1930 341 The Harbour at La Rochelle
         404 Saumur
1931 58 Sospel
         530 Tarascon
1932 60 S. Feliu, Gerona
         524 Off Shore
1933 551 Malcesine from the Piazza
from c/o Fine Art Society Ltd., 148 New Bond Street, London
1934 728 A Norman Castle - watercolour
1941 623 View from Public Gardens Assisi - watercolour

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Works by This Artist