William Nicholson (1872-1949) is among the most admired and elusive painters in the history of British art. In the first four decades of the 20th century, Nicholson explored the genres of portraiture, landscape, and still life with exceptional inventiveness, wit, and technical skill. His distinctive paintings were neither academic nor modernist, and his aversion to art groups and his reluctance to make public pronouncements about art have made...