Friday 5 February 2021

Paul Nash - part 4

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 4 of a 7 - part series on the works of Paul Nash:


c1930-31 Blue House on the Shore
oil on canvas 41.9 x 73.7 cm
Tate, London

c1930 Bouquet
oil on canvas 65 x 50 cm
William Evans Bequest, Bangor University, UK

c1930 Mirrored Hall with Convolvulus
oil on canvas 76 x 51 cm

c1930 Toulon Harbour
pencil, crayon and watercolour, squared for transfer 33 x 49.5 cm


1931 Kinetic Feature
oil on canvas 66 x 50.8 cm
Tate, London

1931 Salome
oil on canvas 76.2 x 50.8 cm
Private Collection

1931 Whiteleaf Cross
oil on canvas 53.7 x 76.1 cm
The Whitworth, Manchester, UK

1931 Whiteleaf Cross
pencil and watercolour 36.8 x 54.6 cm

c1931-32 Tokens
conté crayon 20.2 x 15.2 cm

1932 Easter Sunday
pencil and watercolour on paper 37 x 54.5 cm
Private Collection

1932 Liner
watercolour on paper 55.5 x 72.5 cm
H.M. Government Art Collection, UK

1932 Mansions of the Dead
pencil and watercolour on paper 57.8 x 39.4 cm
Tate, London

1932 River
watercolour, bodycolour and pencil 38.1 x 55.9 cm

1932 Souvenir of Oxford
pencil and watercolour 55.9 x 31.8 cm

1932 The Rye Marshes, East Sussex
colour lithograph advertisement poster

1932 The Rye Marshes, East Sussex
oil on canvas 58.8 x 100.3 cm
Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull, UK

1932 Urne Buriall and the Garden of Cyrus by John Carter 
published by Curwen Press:

Front Cover

Title Page







*          *          *          *          *


1932-36 Harbour and Room
oil on canvas 91.4 x 71.1 cm
Tate, London

1932-42 Pillar and Moon
oil on canvas 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Tate, London

1933 Landscape Study
pencil and watercolour 25 x 36 cm

1934 Composition (Design for Today)
tempera on hardboard 12.8 x 8.9 cm
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK

1934 Event on the Downs
oil on canvas 51 x 61 cm
H.M. Government Art Collection, UK

1934 Landscape Composition (Objects in Relation)
tempera on hardboard 13 x 15.5 cm
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK

1934 Landscape of Bleached Objects
oil on canvas 62 x 74.7 cm
Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand

1934 Landscape of the Megaliths
oil on canvas 49.5 x 73 cm
British Council Collection, London

1934 Telecommunications
oil on canvas 52.3 x 64.8 cm
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK


1934 View from a Window, Nice
oil on board 63.5 x 46 cm
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, UK

1934-37 Voyages of the Moon
oil on canvas 71.1 x 54 cm
Tate, London

c1934 "Arizona" design
plate by Burslem factory earthenware, enamel, glazed and painted 28 cm diameter

before 1935 No.2, The Parade
pencil and watercolour 28 x 39 cm

1935 Equivalents for the Megaliths 
oil on canvas 45.7 x 66 cm
Tate, London

1935 Footballers Prefer Shell
colour lithograph advertisement poster 76 x 114 cm

1935 Footballers Prefer Shell
oil on canvas 52 x 97 cm
National Trust, Upton House, UK on loan from the Shell Art Collection

1935 Mineral Objects
oil on canvas 50.2 x 60.3 cm
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT

1935 British Industries Fair
colour lithograph poster 25 x 33 cm

1935 Ship-rail
pencil and watercolour 24.7 x 19.3 cm

1935 Waves
pencil and wash 29.5 x 40 cm
Private Collection

1935-36 Swanage, Low Tide
pencil and watercolour 38.5 x 22.2 cm

1936 Encounter in the Afternoon
oil on canvas 50.8 x 76.2 cm

1936 Landscape at Large
paper, pine and shale on paper 26.2 x 37.7 cm
Tate, London

1936 London Transport Poster "Come In to Play"
 colour lithograph 100 x 63 cm

1936 London Transport Poster "Come Out to Live"
 colour lithograph 100 x 63 cm

1936 Objects in a Field
pencil, watercolour and gouache 57.2 x 35.5 cm