Paul Nash - part 3

1922 Paul Nash
whole-plate glass negative by Bassano Ltd.
© National Portrait Gallery, London

Paul Nash was one of the most individual British artists of his period, taking a distinguished place in the English tradition of deep attachment to the countryside whilst at the same time responding imaginatively to European modernism. He saw himself as a successor of William Blake and Turner.

After training at the Slade School he served in the First World War, was wounded, and worked as an Official War Artist, his work including some powerful views of the pitted and shattered landscape of No Man's Land that rank among the most memorable images of the conflict.

Although his later career was varied and distinguished, many critics feel that his First World War paintings mark the summit of his achievement. In the 1920s and particularly in the 1930s he was influenced by Surrealism (above all by Giorgio de Chirico, an exhibition of whose work he saw in London in 1928) 

and often concentrated on mysterious aspects of the landscape.

For much of this time he lived in rural areas (Kent, Sussex, Dorset), basing his work on scenes he knew well but imaginatively transforming them. However, he continued to be involved in the London art world, and in 1933 he was the prime mover in the formation of Unit One; he also helped to organise and exhibited in the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936. In the Second World War he was again an Official War Artist. He was already very sick with the asthmatic condition that killed him, but his war work included an acknowledged masterpiece, Totes Meer (Dead Sea), which portrays shot-down aircraft with their wings looking like undulating waves.

Nash was regarded as one of the finest book illustrators of his time; he also designed scenery, fabrics, and posters, and was a photographer and writer, his books including a guide to Dorset (1936). His brother John (1893–1977) was also a painter and illustrator, excelling in meticulous flower drawings for botanical publications. Like Paul he was an Official War Artist in both world wars.

This is part 3 of a 7 - part series on the works of Paul Nash:

1925 Wagner’s Music Drama of The Ring 

published by Noel Douglas, London four wood-engravings and front cover by Paul Nash:

Front Cover

Wood engraving 24.7 x 27.5 cm

Wood engraving 24.7 x 27.5 cm

Wood engraving 24.7 x 27.5 cm

Wood engraving 24.7 x 27.5 cm

1925 Welchman's Hose by Robert Graves

ublished by The Fleuron, London:

Front Cover

Title Page

1925-37 Winter Sea
oil on canvas 71 x 96.5 cm
York Art Gallery, UK

c1925 The Stackyard
oil on canvas 60.5 x 50.5 cm
Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, UK

1926 Mimosa Wood
oil on canvas 54.1 x 65.2 cm
Art Gallery NSW (New South Wales, Australia)

1926 Modern Textiles (shop sign board)
oil on panel 91 x 105.5 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

1926 Paper Pattern No 22 for A Specimen Book of Pattern Papers

1926 Riviera Window, Cros-de-Cagnes
oil on board 72 x 48 cm
H.M. Government Art Collection, London

1926 The French Farm
oil on canvas 54 x 73 cm
Private Collection

1926 The Pond at Souldern
oil on canvas 71 x 92 cm
Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK

c1926-27 Landscape
oil on canvas 63 x 75 cm
H.M. Government Art Collection, London

1926-31 The Window, Iver Heath
oil on canvas 84 x 61.5 cm
BBC England

1927 Berkshire Landscape
oil on canvas 62.2 x 74.9 cm
Southwark Art Collection, London

1927 Bouquet
woodcut
Curwen Press, London

1927 Dahlias
oil on canvas 41 x 51 cm

1927 Savernake
oil on canvas 76.2 x 50.8 cm
Private Collection

1927 St Pancras, London
oil on canvas 41 x 60 cm
The Wilson Art Gallery & Museum, Cheltenham, UK

1927 St. Pancras Lilies
oil on canvas 63.7 x 45.8 cm
Ulster Museum, Belfast, UK

1927 Still Life with Bog Cotton
oil on canvas 91.4 x 71.7 cm
Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK

1927-28 Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, Snow
oil on canvas 82.5 x 64 cm
Museums Sheffield, UK

1927-28 Oxenbridge Pond
oil on canvas 99.7 x 87.6 cm
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, UK

c1927 Through a Window, Riviera
oil on canvas 72.5 x 49.2 cm
Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, UK

1928 Cactus
oil on canvas 48.6 x 38.4 cm
The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, Yorkshire, UK

1928 Lupins and Cactus
oil on canvas 60.5 x 41 cm

1928 Plage
oil on canvas 72.8 x 49.5 cm
National Museum Cardiff, UK

1928-29 Nostalgic Landscape, St. Pancras Station
oil on canvas 63.5 x 76.2 cm
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

1928-29 The Two Serpents
oil on canvas 92 x 71 cm
Private Collection

1929 Coronilla (recto on another canvas)
oil on canvas 61.2 x 50.8 cm
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK

1928 The Diving Stage
pencil and oil on canvas 84 x 53.5 cm
British Council Collection, London

1929 Coronilla
wood engraving

1929 Dead Spring
oil on canvas 48.5 x 40 cm
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK

1929 Dead Spring study
pencil on wove paper 34.3 x 27.3 cm
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens,
San Marino, CA

1929 February
oil on canvas 50.8 x 61 cm
Private Collection

1929 Garden Steps
pencil and watercolour on paper 38 x 56 cm

1929 Landscape at Iden
oil on canvas 69.8 x 90.8 cm
Tate, London

1929 Northern Adventure
oil on canvas 92.7 x 71.6 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, UK

1929 Souvenir of Florence
oil on canvas 68.6 x 43.8 cm
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT

1929 Swan Song
oil on canvas 41.9 x 52.1 cm
Private Collection

1929-30 Lares
oil on canvas 70.8 x 40.6 cm
Tate, London

1929-30 Wood on the Downs
oil on canvas 71.5 x 92 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Collections, UK

c1929-30 Token
oil on canvas 51,5 x 61.2 cm
National Galleries of Scotland, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, UK

c1929-32 Piano
pencil and watercolour 39.5 x 58 cm

1930 Nest of the Siren
oil on canvas 77 x 51.2 cm
H.M. Treasury, London

1930 Poster for the Empire Marketing Board
colour lithograph 50.5 x 76.5 cm

1930 Radio Times Christmas Number front cover design