 A marine artist and painter of ships, Nickerson painted as William C. Trenholm and Thaddeus Bannister before he became the artist Reginald Nickerson.
The following personal recollections are by Steve Rowland of Massachusetts:
Reggie was an accomplished painter who sold many of his painting right out
of his shop on Rte 6 A in West Yarmourth. I would frequently stop by there and chat with him and admire his artistic creations. He frequently talked
about summers spent in Europe where he would do "touch up paintings" for
Christie's.
On February 14, 1991, the Register, out of Barnstable Mass., ran an article
about the paintings of William Carpenter Trenholm and how the "artist" and his
works had come out of "nowhere" to suddenly be so prominent on the Marine art
market. It turns out that all of the Trenholm painting were traced back
to being sold out of Reggie's shop. Reggie refunded all of the money for anyone
who wanted to return his paintings and nothing ever came of it, except for a little local lure.
On October 23, 1991, I purchased a Thaddeus Bannister painting from Reggie
that I had admired for a while. I asked him why he painted under all the
different names and he said he just enjoyed it. He said that Thaddeus
Bannister was his uncle ( I have no knowledge if that is true or not). I told
him he was good enough to paint under his own name and why did he bother with
the other names. Now, I'm not saying I convinced him, but if you look at the records, his
work only started to appear sometime after that period.
In my opinion, Reggie simply matured through some other painters names,
like William C Trenholm and Thaddeus Bannister, before he became the
artist, Reginald Nickerson.
Additional note:
The above assumption about Reginald Nickerson also having painted as Thaddeus Bannister and William C. Trenholm was confirmed by Joshua Eldred of Eldred's Auctions.
The following is from the Cape Cod Times obituary of the artist, January 9, 1999
Reginald E. Nickerson
Business owner, artist; pianist; exotic car lover
YARMOUTHPORT - Reginald Eugene Nickerson, an antiques business owner, artist and pianist, died Tuesday at his home. He was the husband of Mary (Parsons) Nickerson. Mr. Nickerson grew up in Everett, where he graduated from Everett High School. He studied music at the New England Conservatory of Music and art at Boston's Museum of Art. He was an excellent pianist and formed his own band called the Gene Nickerson Orchestra that was heard on radio stations. He and his orchestra played on cruise ships crossing to Europe.
Mr. Nickerson met his wife 52 years ago. They were married for 43 years. The couple moved to Yarmouthport in 1958. Mr. Nickerson was a manager for the Northeast Division of G.D. Searle and Co. and after working there, he and his wife opened up their own antiques business called Nickerson Antiques. A self-taught marine artist, his work was sold to Christie's in New York and in London and is known all over the country.
Mr. Nickerson was a lover of exotic cars, owning many Maseratis. He was also a lover of the water and had many boats custom-made. He and his wife traveled many times all over Europe. Surviving besides his wife are a son, William E. Nickerson of Orleans, Massachusetts; a sister, Beverly Larson of Redlands, Calif.; a granddaughter; and two nephews. Services are private.
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