RHODA HOLMES NICHOLS]

Mrs. Nicholls is also known as an illustrator.  Harold Payne says of her:  “Rhoda Holmes Nicholls, although an illustrator of the highest order, cannot be strictly classed as one, for the reason that she is equally great in every other branch of art.  However, as many of her best examples of water-colors are ultimately reproduced for illustrative purposes, and as even her oil paintings frequently find their way into the pages of art publications, it is not wrong to denominate her as an illustrator, and that of the most varied and prolific type.  She may, like most artists, have a specialty, but a walk through her studio and a critical examination of her work—­ranging all along the line of oil paintings, water-colors of the most exquisite type, wash drawings, crayons, and pastels—­would scarcely result in discovering her specialty....  As a colorist she has few rivals, and her acute knowledge of drawing and genius for composition are apparent in everything she does.”

NICHOLS, CATHERINE MAUDE, R. E. The pictures of this artist have been hung on the line at the Royal Academy exhibitions a dozen times at least.  From Munich she has received an official letter thanking her for sending her works to exhibitions in that city.  Fellow of the Royal Painter-Etchers’ Society; president of the Woodpecker Art Club, Norwich; Member of Norwich Art Circle and of a Miniature Painters’ Society and the Green Park Club, London.  Born in Norwich.  Self-taught.  Has worked in the open at Barbizon, in Normandy, in Cornwall, Devon, London, and all around the east coast of Norfolk.

Miss Nichols has held three exhibitions of her pictures both in oil and water-colors in London.  She has executed more than a hundred copper plates, chiefly dry-points.  The pictures in oils and water-colors, the miniatures and the proofs of her works have found purchasers, almost without exception, and are in private hands.  Most of the plates she has retained.

Miss Nichols has illustrated some books, her own poems being of the number, as well as her “Old Norwich.”  She has also made illustrations for journals and magazines.

One is impressed most agreeably with the absence of mannerism in Miss Nichols’ work, as well as with the pronounced artistic treatment of her subjects.  Her sketches of sea and river scenery are attractive; the views from her home county, Norfolk, have a delightful feeling about them.  “Norwich River at Evening” is not only a charming picture, but shows, in its perspective and its values, the hand of a skilful artist.  “Mousehold Heath,” showing a rough and broken country, is one of her strongest pictures in oils; “Stretching to the Sea” is also excellent.  Among the water-colors “Strangers’ Hall,” Norwich, and “Fleeting Clouds,” merit attention, as do a number of others.  One could rarely see so many works, with such varied subjects, treated in oils, water-colors, dry point, etc., by the same artist.