The son of artists, Ben Nicholson (1894–1982) studied briefly at the Slade School of Fine Art before travelling through Europe and the United States. His early still lifes reflected his father William Nicholson’s influence, but by the 1920s, he had embraced figurative and abstract styles shaped by Post-Impressionism and Cubism. In the 1920s and 30s, he became linked with the Constructivist movement, noted for its geometric clarity and restraint.