1890s Lithograph after William Nicholson’s woodcut, horse races, framed antique art

Sir William Nicholson (1872–1949), Racing (March), 1898, original colour lithograph after Nicholson’s hand-coloured woodcut, from An Almanac of Twelve Sports, published by William Heinemann, London, with accompanying verses by Rudyard Kipling, presented under glass in a timber frame. The image is a striking example of Nicholson’s late-Victorian graphic style, reducing the fashionable racing crowd and mounted figures to bold black silhouettes against restrained olive and ochre tones, with an immediacy that recalls both Japanese prints and contemporary poster design. The Metropolitan Museum of Art records the 1898 publication as containing colour lithographs based on Nicholson’s hand-coloured woodcuts. 

45cm x 40cm frame

25cm x 22cm artwork 

Artist biography: Sir William Newzam Prior Nicholson was born in Newark-on-Trent in 1872 and became one of the most distinctive British painters, printmakers and designers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He first achieved widespread recognition through graphic work, particularly his forceful woodcut-derived images and poster designs, before developing a highly successful career as a painter of portraits, landscapes and still lifes. His economical use of silhouette and broad areas of colour gave his prints an exceptionally modern appearance and made series such as An Alphabet and An Almanac of Twelve Sports particularly influential. Nicholson later became a distinguished Edwardian portraitist and was knighted in 1936. His works are held in major British and international collections, including the National Portrait Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.