Dahlias in a White Pot reflects the fruitful friendship that developed between Christopher Wood, Winifred and Ben Nicholson in the late 1920s. This relationship was one of mutual admiration, with each artist deeply affecting the ideas of the others. Jeremy Lewison identifies Wood as the catalyst for Ben Nicholson embracing a naive style in 1927, after the Nicholsons first encountered his paintings in his flat in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, towards the end of 1926. Virginia Button also points to Wood’s technique of scraping, priming and re-priming
his paintings with undercoat, creating a textured ground, a technique which both of the Nicholsons adopted.

In March 1928, Wood made his first visit to the Nicholsons’ house, Banks Head, in Cumbria, where the three artists would paint together in the farmhouse and outdoors. Wood delighted in their quiet, rural life which was a great contrast to the
bohemian life he led in Paris. During the visit he found himself moved by the simplicity of their lives and deeply inspired by their painting.

‘Ben encouraged Kit to remove pictorial clutter from his composition, while Winifred’s sense of colour and its emotional and spiritual possibilities made a lasting impression.’ 1

Here there is a sense of movement and energy in the flowers that suggests the naive French artist Henri Rousseau’s Bouquet of Flowers c1909–10, (Tate Gallery Collection) and Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings. Wood had also by this time ‘discovered’ Alfred Wallis, admiring his rough, chalky application of paint and
his child-like, flattened compositions. While Wood’s early work assimilated many influences, English and French, there is a huge confidence in this painting and its lyrical charm is very much his own. In 1930, the year of his untimely death, Wood also painted harbour scenes of Tréboul and St Ives, as well as some wonderfully imaginative surrealist images such as Zebra and Parachute, 1930 (Tate Gallery Collection).

1 Virginia Button, Christopher Wood, Tate Publishing, London, 2003, p45