Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981)

This is thought to be a portrait of Vera Moore, who was a close friend of Winifred Nicholson from the 1920s. Vera Moore was a New Zealand born pianist, as well as the partner of Constantin Brancusi. She was also a close friend of the collector Helen Sutherland, who greatly admired her 'heavenly' playing and wrote: 'Vera Moore is lovely when she plays - it is sculpture I think - the strange almost bland unseeing eyes and head of sculpture and inward life somehow. Another friend of mine said she looked as if she had just been told a lovely secret when she played' (quoted in V. Corbett, A Rhythm, A Rite, A Ceremony: Helen Sutherland at Cockley Moor, Penrith, 1996, p. 56).

We are very grateful to Jovan Nicholson for his assistance in preparing the catalogue entries for lots 44, 46 and 48.