An exploration of the Nicholson womens artistic legacy across three generations, highlighting matrilineal influence, creative collaborations, textiles, and painting
Relative Ties highlights the work of three generations of women artists from the illustrious Nicholson familyMabel Nicholson, Nancy Nicholson, EQ Nicholson, and Louisa Creedand explores what women inherit from their mothers, what can be passed down matrilineal lines, and the importance of siblings to a creative practice. It brings together designs, paintings, preparatory drawings, textiles, and wallpaper, alongside unprecedented insights into the tools and techniques the artists used.
Together, the Nicholson womenMabel, her daughter Nancy, daughter-in-law EQ, and EQs daughter Louisaform a celebrated line of artists working from the late nineteenth century to the present day across a multiplicity of spaces, contexts, and mediums, ranging from paintings and works on paper to wallpaper and fabric.
Published on the occasion of an exhibition at The Womens Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, this catalogue also includes a newly commissioned work by contemporary artist Katie Schwab (b. 1985) responding directly to the Nicholson womens legacy.
Exhibition Schedule
The Womens Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge
6 March 6 September 2026
York City Art Gallery February May 2027
Published by Paul Holberton Publishing/Distributed by Yale University Press
