Alice Strang will discuss Mabel Pryde Nicholson in the context of her Scottishness. She grew up in the centre of Edinburgh's artistic, literary and theatrical circles, not least due to being the sister of the artist James Pryde and the great-niece of Robert Scott Lauder and James Eckford Lauder, who were both members of the Royal Scottish Academy. Strang will examine the opportunities for women to become professional artists in late nineteenth-century Scotland and the fortunes of Nicholson's Scottish female contemporaries. Her relationship with the Scottish art world will be explored, concluding with the post-humous inclusion of three of her paintings in the Royal Glasgow Institute's Annual Exhibition of 1920 and the works by her now held in Scottish public collections.

Supported by Lyon & Turnbull fine art auctioneers

Alice Strang is an independent Curator and Art Historian and a Senior Specialist in Modern and Contemporary Art at Lyon & Turnbull auctioneers. Whilst a Senior Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, she curated the award-winning exhibition Modern Scottish Women: Painters and Sculptors 1885-1965 and edited the accompanying publication. She has researched, written about and exhibited works by the Nicholson family of artists for over twenty years, including the touring exhibition Winifred NIicholson in Scotland, with book of the same title and the national collection display Ben Nicholson and the St Ives School, at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh.