Ben NICHOLSON (1894-1982). Still life, pear studies. Pencil, dated 1944. Bearing on the back a British Council Fine Arts Department exhibition label "Ben Nicholson, Exhibition Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels. 1954/5". Height 31 cm - Width 22.5 cm Note: considered the father of abstract art in Great Britain, his return to France after the war and the influence of the School of Paris brought him back to his early favorite subject, the "geometric" still life. Bibliography: reproduced under no. 124 in the catalog Ben Nicholson, Paintings, Herbert Read. Provenance: acquired directly from the artist on the occasion of an exhibition in Paris in February 1955. Handwritten letter from the artist to the buyer, the painting's current owner.