Juliette Nichols, [Woman and Child at Garden Fence], circa 1915. MODERNISM: Editions & Works on Paper.
All the way back in 1870, a unique and under-sung voice in American art was born on the banks of the Ohio River, just across from the West Virginia line. At the time, the US was in the midst of Reconstruction, and the Midwestern region was undergoing a wave of modernization that saw the construction of factories and the laying of rail lines, creating and connecting hubs throughout the area. It was against this cultural backdrop that Juliette Nichols was born in Marietta, Ohio, finding herself in France by the early 1900s. Studying in Paris, she learned Japanese woodcut techniques from Edna Boies Hopkins and exhibited her work at the American Women’s Art Association alongside a few other artists who would eventually form the group known as the Provincetown Printers.
Following our recent offerings of works by the Provincetown Printers, Phillips is continuing the journey with a revelatory discovery of this remarkable artist, about whom not much is known. This season in our MODERNISM: Editions & Works on Paper auction, we present five works by Juliette Nichols that showcase what collectors have come to love about her work.
American Experimentalism
Juliette Nichols, [Group of Figures], circa 1915. MODERNISM 1880–1960: Editions & Works on Paper.
As the winter of 1915–1916 approached, a community of artists decided to remain in the small fishing village of Provincetown, Massachusetts, beyond the summer. With a shared sense of camaraderie and community, they braved the harsh New England winter to focus on their artistic pursuits in woodblock printing. That winter, the white-line woodcut, otherwise known as the “Provincetown Print” was said to be born. This inventive technique allowed the printer to see the entire composition on a singular piece of wood and afforded endless possibilities for texture, color, and shading, using watercolor as ink. Most of this community of primarily female artists quickly took up this technique, and the distinctive aesthetic of the Provincetown art colony became firmly established. This spirit of invention among the predominantly French-trained, American-born artists exemplifies the more inventive side of early modern American creativity and highlights these artists’ complete control of the printing process from beginning to end.
Juliette Nichols, [Green and Purple Poppy] and [Red and Green Poppy], circa 1916. MODERNISM: Editions & Works on Paper.
Juliette Nichols had met several artists in this group when they studied together in Paris. While living in Provincetown, she exhibited with the group at the Berlin Photographic Company in New York. Soon after, she returned to Paris and then New York City, where she had an apartment on West 4th Street in Greenwich Village before ultimately moving back to her hometown of Marietta, Ohio.
Modern Imagery
Juliette Nichols, [Houses on the Waterfront, Day], 1915. MODERNISM: Editions & Works on Paper.
Across these works, the artist ushers classic subjects into the modernist conversation. These often expressively carved and vibrantly hued scenes that include bathers, landscapes, and seascapes show us the forward-thinking and innovative approach of the Provincetown Printers as torchbearers of a new visual language in the early 1900s. The works are bold, formally daring, and as referential to Japanese printmaking as they are to early European Modernism. But perhaps what makes them so intriguing to us today is the opportunity they offer to view a distinctive kind of American lifestyle through Nichols’ eyes — a lifestyle she not only depicted but one she also lived.
These images are exuberant, experimental, radically contemporary to their time, saturated, and rich, but what keeps our eyes lingering is the joy of this bucolic way of life. A slice of Americana, we can imagine spending the days reading, swimming, sailing, and even napping under a tree after a long stint of gardening before the change of seasons brings with it winter ice skating and ballroom fêtes. These works offer a window into American leisure at its very best and call to mind how artists have historically depicted coastal destinations. The Cape is to Nichols and the Provincetown Printers as Arles was to Van Gogh and Gauguin.
The Quiet New England Inventor
Juliette Nichols, [Houses and Trees], 1915. MODERNISM: Editions & Works on Paper.
As we uncover more about the Provincetown Printers and their contribution to American art, we’re reminded of how frequently creators in New England have charted a radical course before their discovery by wider culture. One thinks of the composer Charles Ives working in Connecticut, whose 1908 work The Unanswered Question quietly changed the course of classical music even though it wasn’t performed until 1946. Or think of Emily Dickinson, that most notable Amherst reclusive modernist, whose works also didn’t fully emerge until much later. Looking at these works by Juliette Nichols today, by their experimental nature, their varied impressions of the same composition, their use of collage and hand-coloring, and a palette that rivals that of Matisse and the Fauvists, we can see just how forward-thinking she was. And just as we’ve seen before with defining creative moments from this region of the country, perhaps now is the time that Juliette Nichols gets her due.
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