Sir Francis Nicholson was a British artist. He worked in watercolour and oil, and is mainly known as a landscape artist.

Career

Nicholson studied with a local artist in Scarborough, before beginning his career in his native Pickering, producing sporting pictures and portraits for a variety of Yorkshire patrons. By the mid-1780s he was also making paintings of country houses, leading him to concentrate on landscapes in watercolour.

From 1789, he contributed views of both Yorkshire and Scotland to exhibitions at the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

. He also supplied topographical views for the Copper Plate Magazine.

He contributed "Views of England", in collaboration with the engraver Francis Jukes

Francis Jukes

Francis Jukes was a prolific engraver and publisher, chiefly known for his topographical and shipping prints, the majority in aquatint. He worked alongside the great illustrators of the late eighteenth century...

 to "The Beauties of England and Wales", Author: Britton, John & Edward Wedlake Brayley - A book published in 18 volumes from 1801 to 1815.

Although his market increasingly became London-based, Nicholson continued to live in Yorkshire - at Whitby

Whitby

Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...

, Knaresborough

Knaresborough

Knaresborough is an old and historic market town, spa town and civil parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located on the River Nidd, four miles east of the centre of Harrogate.-History:...

 and Ripon

Ripon

Ripon is a cathedral city, market town and successor parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located at the confluence of two streams of the River Ure in the form of the Laver and Skell. The city is noted for its main feature the Ripon Cathedral which is architecturally...

. He did not move to London until about 1803. In 1804, he became a founder-member of the Society of Painters in Watercolours

Royal Watercolour Society

The Royal Watercolour Society is an English institution of painters working in watercolours...

, and was a regular and prolific contributor to its exhibitions.

Later life

He wrote a handbook, The practice of drawing and painting landscape from nature, in water colours, which was published in 1820. It sold out and a second edition followed in 1823. Nicholson died in London and is buried there in Brompton Cemetery

Brompton Cemetery

Brompton Cemetery is located near Earl's Court in South West London, England . It is managed by The Royal Parks and is one of the Magnificent Seven...

.

Legacy

His c. 1837 self-portrait is in the National Portrait Gallery.