Winifred Nicholson (née Roberts) attended Byam Shaw School of Art, London (1912–14 and 1918–19), exhibiting at the RA from 1914. 

In 1920, she married painter Ben Nicholson and they moved to Switzerland. She held her first solo exhibition at Mayor Gallery in 1925 and between 1926–35 was part of the 7&5 Society. 

Continuing to travel after separating from her husband in 1931, Nicholson lived in Paris with her children before settling in Cumbria (1939). She also held solo shows at Leicester Galleries, Alex Reid & Lefevre and Crane Kalman Gallery. 

She painted vivid colourful works and wrote at length on her fascination with prisms and rainbows. Her essay ‘Unknown Colour’ was published in Circle: International Survey of Constructive Art in 1937. 

Her later years were marked by a series of exhibitions, including a 1969 retrospective at Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal, a solo exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (1972) and another retrospective organised by the Scottish Arts Council (1979).

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