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Lionel Benedict Nicolson MVO
Born	(1914-08-06)6 August 1914 Sissinghurst Castle,Kent, England
Died	22 May 1978(1978-05-22) (aged 63) Sissinghurst Castle,Kent, England
Resting place	Trinity Church Cemetery,Sissinghurst,Kent
Education	Eton College
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Occupation(s)	Art historian & author
Spouse	Luisa Vertova ​ ​ (m. 1955; div. 1962)​
Children	1
Parents	Harold Nicolson (father) Vita Sackville-West (mother)
Relatives	Nigel Nicolson (brother)
Military career
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Years of service	1939-1945
Rank	Captain
Unit	Intelligence Corps
Battles / wars	World War II

Lionel Benedict NicolsonMVO (6 August 1914 – 22 May 1978) was a Britishart historian and author. He was the author ofThe Painters ofFerrara (1950) andHendrick Terbrugghen (1958).

Nicolson was born on 6 August 1914. He was the elder son of authorsHarold Nicolson andVita Sackville-West and the brother of writer and politicianNigel. His godmothers wereViolet Trefusis,Olive Custance andRosamund Grosvenor.

The boys grew up atSissinghurst Castle, in the rural depths ofKent, surrounded by the renowned gardens that are now run by theNational Trust. Nicolson was educated atEton College andBalliol College, Oxford, studying modern history. In 1939, he was appointed DeputySurveyor of the King's Pictures underKenneth Clark, but soon after, war was declared and he joined theIntelligence Corps, rising to the rank of captain. In 1945 he resumed his Royal post as Deputy Surveyor, then underAnthony Blunt.

After being appointed aMVO, Nicolson resigned from theRoyal Household in 1947 and became editor ofThe Burlington Magazine (1947–1978). Nicolson spent much of his life collecting photographs of early seventeenth-century works in the Caravaggio manner which he wrote about inThe Burlington Magazine and which eventually filled three large volumes.

He was married on 8 August 1955 toLuisa Vertova, the elder daughter of Professor Giacomo Vertova ofFlorence, and they had a daughter, Vanessa Pepita Giovanna (b. 1956), before divorcing in 1962.

Nicolson died on 22 May 1978 and was buried in Trinity Church Cemetery inSissinghurst,Kent, adjacent to his father.

Nicolson's archive^[1] is in thePaul Mellon Centre where it is fully catalogued and available for consultation. The archive includes material created and collected by Nicolson, largely in a personal rather than professional capacity, throughout his life. The majority pertains to 1933–1939. The collection primarily includes journals^[2] and correspondence.^[3]

• The Painters ofFerrara (1950)
• Hendrick Terbrugghen (1958)
• Wright of Derby: Painter of Light (1968)
• The Treasures of theFoundling Hospital (1972)
• Courbet: The Studio of the Painter (1973)
• Georges de La Tour (1974)

• Playing by the Rules - Kennedy Fraser
• Dictionary of Art Historians

• Benedict Nicolson archive at thePaul Mellon Centre

• List of Bloomsbury Group people

• 1914 births
• 1978 deaths
• 20th-century English historians
• 20th-century English LGBTQ people
• English art historians
• English LGBTQ writers
• Intelligence Corps officers
• Members of the Royal Victorian Order
• Nicolson family
• People educated at Eton College

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