Winter Silence displays many of Winifred Nicholson’s favourite themes. She often grew bulbs in her home which she then painted, noticeably hyacinths, narcissi, irises, and as in this case, crocuses, explaining, “I like promise of things to come. There always turns out such unexpected and exciting things in the colourlessness of the unknown future.” Also characteristic is what she referred to as “the opposition of light to darkness,” seen here in the juxtaposition of the deep browns of the bowl and the shimmering winter light.

Winter Silence was painted in Winifred Nicholson’s home in Cumbria, looking out over the Irthing Valley with the fells of the North Pennines in the distance, although they are partially obscured by cloud. Clearly recognisable is the parapet of the flat roof beyond the sunroom, where she painted many of her late pictures (for other pictures depicting the parapet see Now and Rainbow Willow Branch, ‘Winifred Nicholson: Liberation of Colour’, Jovan Nicholson, Philip Wilson Publishers, London, 2016, pp.118, 125). Also clearly discernible in the top left hand corner are the branches of one of her favourite beech trees.

Painted in the last year of her life the picture displays Winifred Nicholson’s innate optimism, and despite the snow and ice there is a strong suggestion that there is not long to wait till spring t.mes . With the deep magenta and fiery purple ringing the bowl the picture also belongs to her prismatic series of paintings, so called because of her use of prisms in her exploration of colour (see op. cit. for a discussion of the prismatic pictures pp. 30-37). The first t.mes these prismatic pictures were displayed publicly in any number was at her Crane Kalman Gallery exhibition in March 1981, which opened shortly after she had passed away, and was a resounding success.