Felicitas Vogler; photographer (who also happened to be married to painter Ben Nicholson)
Hyfler/Rosner
Photographer wife of Ben Nicholson
The Independent
10 October 2006
Patrick Elliott
Felicitas Maria Vogler, photographer: born Berlin 25 April
1922; married 1957 Ben Nicholson (died 1982; marriage
dissolved 1977); died Vevey, Switzerland 22 September 2006.
Felicitas Vogler was an outstanding landscape photographer
who held exhibitions throughout Europe, Japan, New Zealand
and South Africa. Her first important show was organised by
the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1973; her
last was a major retrospective, "World of Light", held at
the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh
earlier this year. However, she was probably best known as
the third wife of the British artist Ben Nicholson, a fact
that frustrated her somewhat.
Small, upright, bright-eyed and perfectly coiffed, Vogler
was a formidable woman. She had particular likes (nature,
Beethoven, cats, Bendicks mints) and dislikes (contemporary
art, urbanisation, noise, art historians) and she expressed
her feelings with candour and vigour. She could talk for
hours at a time but preferred one-on-one conversations: her
friends were kept in such separate compartments that most
had never met.
Her strong personality hid a warm, generous and witty
character. She made friends easily and helped numerous
charities, particularly those involved with music. She had a
phenomenal knowledge of literature, philosophy, psychology,
music and art, and could provide the Latin name of any plant
or tree.
In her youth she had become interested in astrology,
palm-reading, spiritualism and mysticism and throughout her
life she worked semi-professionally as an astrologist. New
friends would invariably be asked their exact time and date
of birth. Paradoxically, she refused to divulge her own year
of birth, claiming that even her doctor did not know it.
An only child, Felicitas Vogler was born in Berlin in 1922.
Her father was a banker and an amateur photographer, while
her grandfather was an amateur painter. Felicitas studied
psychology at Munich University, completing her doctorate in
1950. She then worked as an arts correspondent for a Munich
newspaper and as a researcher for an arts programme on
Bavarian Radio.
Her interest in Indian philosophy took her to London in May
1957, where she planned a long trip to India. Profiting from
her time in England, she travelled to Cornwall to research a
radio programme on the English landscape. A friend suggested
she visit the artists' colony at St Ives. Following meetings
with Peter Lanyon, Patrick Heron, Roger Hilton and others,
she met the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, who had separated
from Ben Nicholson six years earlier.
Hepworth arranged for her to meet Nicholson; before her trip
to St Ives, Felicitas Vogler had never heard of him. Their
half-hour meeting turned into a five-hour conversation.
Nicholson insisted on driving her around Cornwall the next
day and followed her when she left for Wales. They were
married in London at Hampstead registry office on 13 July,
less than two months after first meeting. Vogler never tired
of retelling this story, recalling every detail with girlish
enthusiasm. It remained the defining point in her life.
Vogler became a British citizen, but was unsettled by the
bad weather and claustrophobic social life in St Ives, so in
1958 she and Nicholson moved to Switzerland. They had a
house built near the village of Brissago, in the mountains
above Locarno: peaceful and secluded, it enjoyed
breathtaking views of Lake Maggiore. With Nicholson's
encouragement, Vogler took up photography seriously,
producing stunning images of the Greek islands, Ticino
landscape and Venice. Her photographs were first published
in exhibition catalogues of Nicholson's work produced in
1959 and 1960. A major book on her work, The Quiet Eye, was
published by Thames & Hudson in 1969. The Victoria & Albert
Museum acquired her work.
Like many famous artists' wives, Vogler became the
doorkeeper, turning away unwelcome visitors. By 1971 the
marriage had lost its joie de vivre. Nicholson was homesick
and decided to return to England; Vogler wanted to stay in
Switzerland. They divorced in 1977 but remained on good
terms, seeing each other regularly until his death in 1982.
She also remained in close contact with Nicholson's children
and grandchildren.
Nicholson's departure led to a new phase in Vogler's work.
Hitherto she had photographed European towns and landscapes,
but from the early 1970s she travelled much further afield,
to Namibia, Kashmir, New Zealand, Japan, Russia and
elsewhere. She concentrated her attention on unspoilt,
unpopulated landscapes, printing them in pale, natural
colours. Often they show nothing more than the sea, sky or
trees. Her compositions invariably bear a strong sense of
geometry which bears comparison with Nicholson's work. She
had little interest in the technical aspects of photography:
her favourite camera was one she found on a bench.
In 1987 she moved to the village of St Légier, near Vevey on
Lake Geneva. Her desire for privacy, her dislike of commerce
and the long shadow cast by Ben Nicholson, meant that she
could never properly promote her own work. She continued
working and travelling right up until her sudden death,
visiting Scotland twice (including a trip to Orkney) and
Tunisia within the space of two months.
There were no children from her marriage to Nicholson and
Vogler was forthright in asserting that she did not want
any.