John Nash did not receive any formal training, following his brother’s advice that it would ruin his unique vision of landscape. It would be unfair however to describe John Nash as an amateur artist especially after the notable success of his first exhibition in 1913 at the Dorien Leigh Gallery in Pelham Street in London.
During the First World War, in 1916, John Nash joined the ‘Artists Rifles’ before becoming an Official War Artist in 1918. From 1919 he then lived at Whiteleaf in Buckinghamshire where he became part of the renaissance of English book illustration. The drawings and engravings of this period especially reveal Nash’s knowledge of literature and botany as can be seen in his illustration of Poisonous Plants published in1927. During that period Nash also produced comic drawings inspired by Edward Lear, whose work he had seen in the home of his aunt Gussie, one of Lear’s girlfriends.
During the 1920s Nash taught at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford and remained a teacher until the end of his life, inspiring many, including some of the best Kew artists. During most of the interwar years John Nash and his wife lived at Meadle in Buckinghamshire. From there both went on holidays all over England during which they filled numerous sketch books with pen, pencil and wash studies which developed into oil and watercolour compositions in their studio. Like Constable, Nash made annotations in these books about the weather on particular days.
Nash had a great passion for plants and his technique as a plant illustrator deserves special notice as he excelled in the field. He liked to use live specimen which sometimes was a problem when publishers asked for illustrations of plants which were not in season. He often used his garden, which was planted with a wide variety of plants such as roses, irises, gentians and hellebores. John Nash had always been interested in botany even as a child he had won a Botany Prize and, like his friend Cedric Morris, he called himself an ‘artist plantsman’.
In 1940 he was commissioned as an Official War Artist in the Royal Marines, a role he did not especially enjoy, preferring to paint the English landscape, which he did after the war. From 1922 Nash had made many visits to Essex and rented a summer cottage at Wormingford, near Colchester and in 1945 he and his wife bought Bottengoms Farm where they lived until they died. When in Essex Nash taught at Colchester Art School and conducted yearly plant illustration courses at Flatford Mill. As one of the founders of Colchester Art Society (and later the Society’s President) and through exhibitions of his own work, he became closely connected with the Minories Art Gallery. On his death he bequeathed his personal library and several of his paintings as well as the engravings recorded in this catalogue to the Gallery. Since then, the library, the paintings and most of the engravings were sold to the Tate.
Nash was made an ARA in 1940 and RA in 1951 and was appointed CBE in 1964. In 1967 he was given the first ever retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy by a living painter. John Nash’s work can be found in many private and public collections such as the Tate Gallery, the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco.
This is part 1 of a 4-part series on the works of John Nash:
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| c1912-13 Rolling Hills pencil and watercolour 28.5 x 27 cm |
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| c1912 Apple Gatherers wood engraving 9 x 3.2 cm |
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| 1913 Haymaking tempera 48 x 39.3 cm The Courtauld Institute of Art, London |
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| 1914 A Gloucestershire Landscape oil on canvas 51.2 x 61.5 cm The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, UK |
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| c1914 Farm on a Hillside pencil, watercolour, bodycolour and ink 27.9 x 33 cm |
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| c1915 A Path through Trees oil on canvas 50.8 x 61 cm Tate, London |
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| c1915 Dorset Landscape pencil, chalks and watercolour 41.5 x 38.5 cm Tate, London |
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| c1915 Spring Landscape pencil, watercolour, coloured crayon and pen and black ink 30.5 x 39.1 cm |
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| c1916 The Viaduct oil on canvas 88.8 x 66 cm Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK |
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| 1917 Oppy Wood study Imperial War Museums, London |
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| 1917 Oppy Wood study Imperial War Museums, London |
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| 1917 Oppy Wood, 1917: Evening oil on canvas 182 x 213.3 cm Imperial War Museums, London |
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| 1917 Oppy Wood, Evening study Imperial War Museums, London |
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| 1918 A French Highway oil on canvas 91.4 x 71.1 cm Imperial War Museums, London |
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| 1918 An Advance Post: Day oil on canvas 76.2 x 50.8 cm Imperial War Museums, London |
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| 1918 Over The Top: First Artists Rifles at Marcoing, 30 December 1917 oil on canvas 79.8 x 108 cm Imperial War Museums, London |
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| 1918 The Cornfield oil on canvas 68.6 x 76.2 cm Tate, London |
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| 1918 The Cornfield watercolour on paper 18.7 x 27 cm Tate, London |
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| 1919 Edge of the Plain watercolour with pen and black ink and touches of gouache, over graphite, on ivory wove paper 26.3 x 36.6 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1919 The Bridge over the Arras-Lens Railway oil on canvas 68.5 x 80 cm Imperial War Museums, London |
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| The Bridge over the Arras-Lens Railway study Imperial War Museums, London |
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| 1920 Horses Grazing wood engraving 6.4 x 6.4 cm |
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| 1920 Nude Figure on Couch wood engraving |
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| 1920 Sapperton Village (recto on another artwork) pen, brush and black and grey wash on cream wove paper 31.2 x 38.3 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1920 Winter Scene, Buckinghamshire oil on canvas 47 x 77.6 cm Manchester Art Gallery, UK |
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| cc1920-30 Untitled (garden scene) wood engraving 13.7 x 15.8 cm (image) Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA |
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| c1920 Untitled (Flagon and Bowl) wood engraving 13.8 x 10 cm |
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| 1921 Darts at Set’s Hole wood engraving 10.1 x 12.6 cm |
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| 1921 Mare and Foal Illustration to an article in the Artists’ Rifles Journal wood engraving 6.1 x 5.5 cm |
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| 1921 The Watchdog or Oh The Dear Little Dogay Illustration to an article in the Artists’ Rifles Journal wood engraving 6.2 x 7 cm |
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| 1922 before The Moat, Grange Farm, Kimble oil on canvas 76.2 x 50.8 cm Tate, London |
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| 1922 Cottage in a Windswept Landscape pencil, pastel and watercolour 19.6 x 32.4 cm |
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| 1922 Landscape with Trees pencil, watercolour and pastel 36.7 x 26.6 cm |
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| 1923 Babs wood engraving 15.2 x 9.5 cm |
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| by 1923 The Lane watercolour on paper 28.6 x 38.7 cm Tate, London |
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| 1923 Ipswich Dock pencil, coloured crayon and watercolour lightly squared for transfer 38.1 x 48.9 cm |
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| 1923 Shearing Sheep wood engraving |
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| 1923 Walled Pond, Little Bredy, Dorset oil on canvas 56.2 x 76.4 cm Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, UK |
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| c1923 Farm through Trees watercolour and pencil on paper 31 x 39.5 cm |
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| c1924-30 The Garden under Snow oil on canvas 76.4 x 61.2 cm Ulster Museum, Belfast, UK |
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| c1924 Cyclamen Persicum wood engraving on paper 17.1 x 12.4 cm Tate, London |
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| c1924 The Dredgers, Bristol Docks oil on canvas 66.7 x 85 cm Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, UK |
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| 1925 A Cottage in Gloucestershire wood engraving |
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| 1925 Ad Amicam, Ut Ad Rura Sua Remiat wood engraving |
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| 1925 Ad Cypassium Ancillam Corinnae wood engraving |
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| 1925 Epiphyllum in Flower wood engraving 19.5 x 13.5 cm |
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| 1925 On Tobacco wood engraving |
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| 1925 The Woodland Ride oil on board 25 x 22 cm Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury, UK |
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| 1925 Threshing wood engraving |
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| c1925 Bristol Docks pencil and watercolour 29.8 x 37.5 cm |
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| c1925 Two Figures in an Interior wood engraving 12.3 x 11.5 cm 1925 Directions to the Housemaid For Directions to Servants by the Rev. Jonathan Swift DD, Published by the Golden Cockerel Press: |
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| 1925 wood engraving 6 x 5.5 cm |
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| 1925 wood engraving 5.2 x 5.4 cm |
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| 1925 wood engraving 6 x 5.5 cm |
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| 1925 wood engraving 4 x 4 cm |
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