Sale: 601 / Day Sale, Dec. 06. 2025 in Munich 
Lot 125000311
Lot 125000311 
125000311
Ben Nicholson
Aug. 59 (Dordogne), 1959.
Relief. Oil and pencil on carved board
Estimate:
€ 80,000 - 100,000
$ 92,800 - 116,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Aug. 59 (Dordogne). 1959.
Relief. Oil and pencil on carved board.
Signed, dated, titled and with a direction arrow on the reverse. 40.5 x 54 cm (15.9 x 21.2 in).
[KA].
• Ben Nicholson transforms the landscape of the French Dordogne into a purely geometric abstraction.
• In 1954, Nicholson represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale and won the first Guggenheim International Award for Painting in 1957, which he received from President Eisenhower at the White House.
• “Aug. 59 (Dordogne)” was exhibited at the legendary Marlborough-Gerson Gallery and at André Emmerich Gallery in New York in 1965.
• Part of a European private collection since 1972 and offered on the international auction market for the first time (source: artprice.com).
• Reliefs by Ben Nicholson are in prominent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Tate Modern, London.
The present work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of paintings and reliefs by Ben Nicholson.
PROVENANCE: Felicitas Vogler-Nicholson Collection.
Marlborough Galerie, Zurich (verso with label).
Private collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above in 1972).
Private collection, South Germany (inherited from the above in 2005).
EXHIBITION: Ben Nicholson, Gimpel Fils, London, July 1960, cat. no. 12 (illustrated)
Ben Nicholson, Kunsthalle Bern, May 27–July 2, 1961, cat. no. 105 (illustrated)
Ben Nicholson. Reliefs, Oilwash, Zeichnungen, Galerie der Spiegel, Cologne, October–November 1962, cat. no. 7 (illustrated)
Ben Nicholson. 1955–65, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery/André Emmerich Gallery, New York, April 1965, cat. no. 8 (illustrated)
Ben Nicholson. New Reliefs, Marlborough Fine Art, Zurich/London, November 22, 1971–January 15, 1972, no cat. no. (with the label on the reverse).
LITERATURE: John Russell, Ben Nicholson. Drawings, Paintings and Reliefs 1911–1968, London 1969, p. 201 (illustrated).
"I like the relief as a means of expression as it gives me so simply the structure that I must have & then one can pursue one's idea on this basic building rather like a tree in spring grows its leaves."
Ben Nicholson 1963, quoted from: Lee Beard, Ben Nicholson. Writings and Ideas, London 2019, p. 49.
Relief. Oil and pencil on carved board.
Signed, dated, titled and with a direction arrow on the reverse. 40.5 x 54 cm (15.9 x 21.2 in).
[KA].
• Ben Nicholson transforms the landscape of the French Dordogne into a purely geometric abstraction.
• In 1954, Nicholson represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale and won the first Guggenheim International Award for Painting in 1957, which he received from President Eisenhower at the White House.
• “Aug. 59 (Dordogne)” was exhibited at the legendary Marlborough-Gerson Gallery and at André Emmerich Gallery in New York in 1965.
• Part of a European private collection since 1972 and offered on the international auction market for the first time (source: artprice.com).
• Reliefs by Ben Nicholson are in prominent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Tate Modern, London.
The present work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of paintings and reliefs by Ben Nicholson.
PROVENANCE: Felicitas Vogler-Nicholson Collection.
Marlborough Galerie, Zurich (verso with label).
Private collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above in 1972).
Private collection, South Germany (inherited from the above in 2005).
EXHIBITION: Ben Nicholson, Gimpel Fils, London, July 1960, cat. no. 12 (illustrated)
Ben Nicholson, Kunsthalle Bern, May 27–July 2, 1961, cat. no. 105 (illustrated)
Ben Nicholson. Reliefs, Oilwash, Zeichnungen, Galerie der Spiegel, Cologne, October–November 1962, cat. no. 7 (illustrated)
Ben Nicholson. 1955–65, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery/André Emmerich Gallery, New York, April 1965, cat. no. 8 (illustrated)
Ben Nicholson. New Reliefs, Marlborough Fine Art, Zurich/London, November 22, 1971–January 15, 1972, no cat. no. (with the label on the reverse).
LITERATURE: John Russell, Ben Nicholson. Drawings, Paintings and Reliefs 1911–1968, London 1969, p. 201 (illustrated).
"I like the relief as a means of expression as it gives me so simply the structure that I must have & then one can pursue one's idea on this basic building rather like a tree in spring grows its leaves."
Ben Nicholson 1963, quoted from: Lee Beard, Ben Nicholson. Writings and Ideas, London 2019, p. 49.
Created in 1959, shortly after Ben Nicholson had moved from St. Ives to Brissago in Switzerland, “Aug 59 (Dordogne)” marks an important moment of artistic renewal and formal refinement. The change of location meant more than just a geographical relocation: it led Nicholson back to the cultural sphere of Europe and opened up new aesthetic horizons for him. During this period, he returned to the relief, the medium that had been so formative for his most advanced artistic explorations since the 1930s. Nicholson's signature started to take shape in the 1920s, influenced by Cubism, especially the works of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, as well as by the geometric rigor of Piet Mondrian. Over the decades, these sources of inspiration gave rise to a distinctive visual language characterized by reduction, rhythmic clarity, and a quiet, contemplative presence. By the end of the 1950s, his position as one of the central figures of British Modernism had been firmly established. In 1954, he represented Great Britain alongside Francis Bacon at the Venice Biennale; a year later, he was awarded the Guggenheim International Painting Prize.
Aug 59 (Dordogne) represents the culmination of this wealth of experience and artistic endeavor. The landscape of the French region of Dordogne does not appear as a depiction but as an atmospheric reference space, a theme that became increasingly prevalent in Nicholson's later work. Using a chisel and razor blade, he worked the surface of the multi-layered material, revealing geometric shapes—slightly distorted, overlapping rectangles, suggested semicircles that seem to float above a whitewashed wooden surface. The result is a composition of lyrical lightness and architectural rhythm. In 1962, Nicholson said of his paintings' titles: “The title for me is the date, but I need something further to enable me to recall which [painting] it is – hence the subtitle – really a kind of label to identify luggage. Sometimes it comes from a reminder of a place, or even a person, or an experience [...].” (Ben Nicholson 1962, quoted from: J. Lewison, Ben Nicholson, Tate Gallery, London 1993, p. 230) His works are not meant to be analyzed but experienced. The imprecise geometries evoke not a real topography but a memory—an inner map of the sensation of light, landscape, and time. Between intimacy and vastness, Nicholson's central concern is expressed in this relief: not the image of the world but its vital essence in immediate presence. [KA]
Aug 59 (Dordogne) represents the culmination of this wealth of experience and artistic endeavor. The landscape of the French region of Dordogne does not appear as a depiction but as an atmospheric reference space, a theme that became increasingly prevalent in Nicholson's later work. Using a chisel and razor blade, he worked the surface of the multi-layered material, revealing geometric shapes—slightly distorted, overlapping rectangles, suggested semicircles that seem to float above a whitewashed wooden surface. The result is a composition of lyrical lightness and architectural rhythm. In 1962, Nicholson said of his paintings' titles: “The title for me is the date, but I need something further to enable me to recall which [painting] it is – hence the subtitle – really a kind of label to identify luggage. Sometimes it comes from a reminder of a place, or even a person, or an experience [...].” (Ben Nicholson 1962, quoted from: J. Lewison, Ben Nicholson, Tate Gallery, London 1993, p. 230) His works are not meant to be analyzed but experienced. The imprecise geometries evoke not a real topography but a memory—an inner map of the sensation of light, landscape, and time. Between intimacy and vastness, Nicholson's central concern is expressed in this relief: not the image of the world but its vital essence in immediate presence. [KA]
125000311
Ben Nicholson
Aug. 59 (Dordogne), 1959.
Relief. Oil and pencil on carved board
Estimate:
€ 80,000 - 100,000
$ 92,800 - 116,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
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