Ben Nicholson (1894-1982), Moon Jug, 1978. Courtesy of Jerwood Collection, © 2025 All rights reserved, DACS.
Moon Jug (1978), a mixed media work on paper by Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) has recently been acquired for Jerwood Collection.
This expressive late work joins Nicholson’s earlier Three Mugs and a Bowl (1928) already held in the Collection and both works highlight his lifelong engagement with everyday forms, particularly jugs, mugs, and bowls inherited from his father. These objects played a key role in Nicholson’s gradual move toward abstraction, offering a bridge between still life and his increasingly modernist vision.
In Moon Jug, we see a return to this familiar subject with the freedom and refinement of Nicholson’s mature style, using pen, gouache, and pastel to flatten and abstract form into rhythm and space.
July 20, 2025
