# EQ Nicholson > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/EQ_Nicholson > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/EQ_Nicholson.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EQ_Nicholson > Source revision: 1354483810 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|British painter and textile designer (1908–1992)}} {{use dmy dates|date=March 2022}} {{use list-defined references|date=June 2013}} {{use British English |date=June 2013}} {{Infobox artist | name = EQ Nicholson | image = Npg 6444; Elsie Queen Nicholson (née Myers), cropped.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Self-portrait in wax crayon and coloured ink, about 1943 (detail) | birth_name = Elsie Queen Myers | birth_date = {{birth date|1908|11|4|df=y}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1992|9|7|1908|11|4|df=y}} | death_place = London | nationality = | field = [painting](/source/painting), textile design | training = | movement = | awards = | spouse = {{marriage|[Christopher "Kit" Nicholson](/source/Christopher_Nicholson)|1931|1948|end=died}} | children = }} '''EQ Nicholson ''' (4 November 1908 – 7 September 1992) was a British painter and [textile design](/source/textile_design)er. == Early life == Elsie Queen Myers was born in London on 4 November 1908, the daughter of the novelist [Leo Myers](/source/Leo_Myers) and his American-born wife Elsie Mellen Palmer; her sister Eveleen was born in 1910.{{r|colorado}} Her paternal grandparents were the writer [Frederic W. H. Myers](/source/Frederic_W._H._Myers) and the photographer [Eveleen Tennant](/source/Eveleen_Tennant); her maternal grandfather was General [William Jackson Palmer](/source/William_Jackson_Palmer) of [Delaware](/source/Delaware), from whose wife Mary "Queen" Palmer, ''née'' Mellen, she received her second name.{{r|cresswell}} Leo Myers frequented writers and artists including members of the [Bloomsbury Group](/source/Bloomsbury_Group), the sculptor [Frank Dobson](/source/Frank_Dobson_(sculptor)) and the painter [Cedric Morris](/source/Cedric_Morris). He committed suicide on 7 April 1944 by taking an overdose of [Veronal](/source/Veronal).{{r|origo|p=256|cresswell}} In 1931, EQ married the architect [Christopher "Kit" Nicholson](/source/Christopher_Nicholson), youngest son of the painters [William Nicholson](/source/William_Nicholson_(artist%2C_born_1872)) and [Mabel Pryde](/source/Mabel_Pryde),{{r|light}} and brother to [Ben Nicholson](/source/Ben_Nicholson) and [Nancy Nicholson](/source/Nancy_Nicholson). During the [Second World War](/source/Second_World_War) EQ and her children lived at first at Yew Cottage on [Cranborne Chase](/source/Cranborne_Chase) in [Dorset](/source/Dorset),{{r|bingham|p=6}} and then, from 1941 until 1947, at Alderholt Mill House, near [Fordingbridge](/source/Fordingbridge) in [Hampshire](/source/Hampshire).{{r|newhall|four|p2=59}} Kit Nicholson died of injuries following a glider crash in Italy on 28 July 1948.{{r|bingham|page=11}} EQ died in London in 1992.{{r|morph}} == Career == EQ studied under [Henry Tonks](/source/Henry_Tonks) at the [Slade School of Fine Arts](/source/Slade_School_of_Fine_Arts) for a few weeks in about 1926, and then spent two years in Paris, where she studied the technique of [batik](/source/batik).{{r|times}} She later worked as an assistant to the designer [Marion Dorn](/source/Marion_Dorn).{{r|npg2}} She also designed rugs.{{r|morph}} When she was twenty she designed the interior of the new family home at [Leckhampton House](/source/Leckhampton_House) in Cambridge.{{r|npg2|times}} After her marriage, she worked in Nicholson's [Modernist](/source/Modernist) architecture practice, where his student and protégé [Hugh Casson](/source/Hugh_Casson) and his wife [Margaret](/source/Margaret_Casson) also worked. EQ designed the interiors of Nicholson's building for the [London Gliding Club](/source/London_Gliding_Club) at [Dunstable](/source/Dunstable) in 1936.{{r|morph}} From about 1936 until 1950, EQ worked with her sister-in-law Nancy Nicholson, who had already printed textile designs both for her brother Ben Nicholson and for his wife [Barbara Hepworth](/source/Barbara_Hepworth) at her [Poulk Press](/source/Poulk_Press). EQ's designs from this time include ''Black Goose'' (1936), ''Daisy'' and ''Seaweed'' (1949). Some of these designs were later screen-printed by Edinburgh Weavers.{{r|jackson|p=70}} One of her best-known designs is ''Runner Bean'', which dates from about 1950 and was used in Hugh Casson's furnishing of the [Royal Yacht](/source/HMY_Britannia){{r|npg}} and for hand-printed wallpapers by Cole & Son.{{r|morph}} The archive of the [Whitworth Art Gallery](/source/Whitworth_Art_Gallery), Manchester, includes a collection of EQ's drawings and textiles.{{r|imong}} Some of her designs are still being commercially produced. For a period of only about fifteen years from about 1941, EQ worked intensely as a painter, in [gouache](/source/gouache), crayon and [collage](/source/collage), in a style that owed something to [Georges Braque](/source/Georges_Braque), whom she greatly admired. She had one show, jointly with [Peter Rose Pulham](/source/Peter_Rose_Pulham) and [Keith Vaughan](/source/Keith_Vaughan), at the [Hanover Gallery](/source/Hanover_Gallery) in 1950.{{r|morph}} Works from this period are in the [Tate](/source/Tate),{{r|tate}} the [New Hall](/source/New_Hall%2C_Cambridge) Art Collection{{r|newhall}} and the [National Portrait Gallery](/source/National_Portrait_Gallery%2C_London);{{r|npg}} they have been compared to those of other artist-designers such as [Edward Bawden](/source/Edward_Bawden) and [Eric Ravilious](/source/Eric_Ravilious).{{r|npg2}} == References == {{reflist|45em|refs= Neil Bingham (editor) (1996). [https://books.google.it/books?&id=8xNQAAAAMAAJ&hl=en ''Christopher Nicholson'']. Royal Institute of British Architects. London: Academy Editions. {{isbn|9781854904454}}. Elissa Arnesen (2002). [http://www.springsgov.com/page.aspx?navid=2597 "Tim Nicholson Collection: A holding of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, Starsmore Center for Local History"]. [Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum](/source/Colorado_Springs_Pioneers_Museum). Accessed March 2012. Sophia Creswell (2004). [https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-35178 Myers, Leopold Hamilton (1881–1944)]. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', online edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/35178}}. {{subscription required}}. Accessed April 2012. [https://books.google.it/books?&id=DjJJAQAAIAAJ&hl=en ''The Nicholsons, a story of four people and their designs: Ben Nicholson, 1894–1982; Nancy Nicholson, 1899–1977; Kit Nicholson, 1904–1948; E.Q. Nicholson, born 1908'']. York City Art Gallery, 1988. {{isbn|9780903281065}}. Katharine Imong. [https://archive.today/20121223110439/http://www.rca.ac.uk/Default.aspx?ContentID=513287&CategoryID=36646 "E.Q. Nicholson"] (abstract of dissertation). Royal College of Art. Accessed March 2012. Lesley Jackson (2002). [https://books.google.it/books?id=c93jEZwcfPoC&hl=en ''Twentieth-century pattern design: textile & wallpaper pioneers''] New York: Princeton Architectural Press; London: Mitchell Beazley. {{isbn|9781568983332}}. Vivienne Light (November 2010). [http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2010/11/in-the-shadow-of-the-chase/ In the shadow of the Chase]. ''Dorset Life''. Accessed March 2012. Richard Morphet (14 September 1992). [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-e-q-nicholson-1551331.html Obituary: E. Q. Nicholson]. ''The Independent''. Accessed March 2012. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110709050557/http://www-art.newhall.cam.ac.uk/the-collection/by/artist/id/132/name/E+Q+Nicholson/artwork/228 About EQ Nicholson]. New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. Archived 9 July 2011. [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp06470/elsie-queen-nicholson-nee-myers "Elsie Queen Nicholson (née Myers) (1908–1992), Designer and painter; daughter of Elsie and Leopold Myers"]. National Portrait Gallery. Accessed March 2012. [http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/2001/mirror-mirror-self-portraits-by-women-artists/portrait-20.php Mirror Mirror - Portrait 20: Elsie Queen (EQ) Nicholson (1908–92)]. National Portrait Gallery. Accessed March 2012. Caroline Moorehead (2002). [http://books.google.it/books?id=6e6EAAAAIAAJ&hl=en ''Iris Origo: marchesa of Val d'Orcia'']. Boston: David R. Godine (1st edition London: John Murray, 2000). {{isbn|9781567921830}}. [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2251&page=1 E.Q. Nicholson 1908–1992]. Tate Collection. Accessed March 2012. [s.n.] (17 September 1992). [https://archive.org/details/NewsUK1992UKEnglish/Sep%2017%201992%2C%20The%20Times%2C%20%2364440%2C%20UK%20%28en%29/page/n16/mode/1up E. Q. Nicholson] (obituary). London: ''The Times'', page 17. }} == Further reading == {{refbegin}} * Louisa Creed. ''Memories of EQ and Eve'', with a memoir by Michael Gryspeerdt. York: [Quacks the Booklet Printer], [1994]. * Richard Morphet. ''E. Q. Nicholson, designer & painter''. London: Cygnet Press, 1990. * Richard Morphet. ''In memory of E. Q. Nicholson: service taken by the Reverend Peter Elvy, Chelsea Old Church, London November 4th 1992, E.Q.'s birthday''. [London?: the Nicholson Family?], 1992. {{refend}} == External links == * [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw11402/Elsie-Queen-Nicholson-ne-Myers Portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, London] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100528011200/http://www.coloradocollege.edu/library/SpecialCollections/Manuscript/EPalmer.html Personal correspondence held in the Tutt Library of Colorado College] * [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/accessions/1997/97digests/arts.htm National Archives] * [http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0466X0101XX-1400V0.xml British Library Sound Archive] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholson, Eq}} Category:1908 births Category:1992 deaths Category:20th-century British women artists Category:Artists from London Category:British textile designers EQ {{bots|deny=Citation bot}} --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [EQ Nicholson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EQ_Nicholson) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EQ_Nicholson?action=history)). 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