Paul Nash – Toovey’s Blog

The Important English Artist and Modernist Paul Nash

An illustration from Genesis by Paul Nash – ‘Let us make man in our image’

Private Press books published in the 20th century were often illustrated by leading British artists. Many of these are printed in signed limited editions like the volume Genesis illustrated by Paul Nash.

In the 20th century many artists rediscovered their role as artisan artists and designers, as well as painters and sculptors of fine art. One of the ways that they this expressed this was through making printed woodblock illustrations for fine books produced by Private Presses.

Paul Nash is often thought of as an essentially English artist but between the wars he also sought to champion the hope embodied in continental modernism defending Picasso and experimenting with abstraction before embracing Surrealism and founding Unit One with Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ivon Hitchens.

He served as a soldier in the trenches of the Great War and became an important war artist on the Western Front between 1917 and 1918 and again during the Second World War.

In 1920, the Society of Wood Engravers was formed and Nash joined. The twelve stark monochromatic illustrations for Genesis illustrates Nash’s move towards modernism and semi-abstraction for a period. The influences of Vorticism and Cubism are apparent in the dynamic sense of movement and the fragmented space he creates in these images. The figures have an ethereal quality. This technique, combined with his unerring and poetic eye, seeds drama in our imaginations and allows us to glimpse something beyond our immediate perception of the world.

Genesis with Twelve Woodcuts by Paul Nash, circa 1924

Genesis was produced for the Nonsuch Press by the Curwen Press in 1924 in a limited edition of 375 copies. The dramatic text is in Rudolf Koch’s Neuland type. This copy lacked its orange, paper dust jacket and despite some issues of condition it realised £800 in a Toovey’s specialist book sale.

Paul Nash exhibited at the important ‘Exhibition of the Work of English Post-Impressionists, Cubists and Others’, where his work was selected by Spencer Gore of the Camden Town Group. The exhibition was held at the Public Art Galleries in Brighton between 16th December 1913 and 14th January 1914. Nash also taught and championed two other artists noted in Sussex, Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden, at the Royal College of Art in London.

I have long been of the opinion that Sussex stands out as an important centre for Modern British Artists working in the 20th century. Paul Nash’s original and influential work, and his connection with Sussex, makes him a favourite of mine.

Skyscape at Petworth House

Paul Nash (1889-1946), The Sun Descending – Study 3, watercolour and chalk on paper, 1945 © Ashmolean Museum

This week I am visiting Petworth House in West Sussex where their latest exhibition, Skyscape, has just opened. This exhibition showcases the extraordinary breadth of prints, paintings and objects in the Ashmolean’s collections. The show represents a collaborative partnership between the National Trust and the Ashmolean which brings together two great regional collections.

I meet with The National Trust’s Exhibition Assistant at Petworth, Natasha Powell. She is clearly excited to have worked with the Ashmolean on this show.
Speaking about the exhibition Natasha says “The exhibition is chronological and thematic. The prints and paintings date from the 16th century to the present day. They have been chosen for their depictions of the sky in a variety of mediums and techniques. And it’s exciting to see Petworth’s collection anew celebrating the sky rather than the landscape.”
All of us have experienced and understand the wonder of the sky, the fleeting, changing qualities of light, colour and movement.

The Ashmolean’s current major exhibition in Oxford explores Rembrandt van Rijn’s early work. I am pleased to find the etching Three Trees at Petworth. It was produced by Rembrandt in 1643 just a year after Saskia, the love of his life, died giving birth to their son. The combination of etched lines captures the approach of a foreboding sky. In the foreground a man stands fishing on the banks of a river as his wife watches with a picnic. Both are seemingly oblivious to the approaching storm.

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), The Three Trees, etching, 1643 © Ashmolean Museum

An artist of towering reputation, by the 1630s Rembrandt was highly respected. His fame and reputation as a painter ensured that his prints were seen as originals and not mere reproductions. Contemporary collectors of his prints afforded Rembrandt a freedom of expression which was sometimes lacking amongst the patrons of his paintings.

Paul Nash’s watercolour study The Sun Descending is painted with an immediacy which Turner would have understood. Like Turner Paul Nash worked in Sussex. As an artist Nash returned again and again to the poetry of the English landscape. He sought to look beyond the immediate to what he referred to as the ‘genius loci’, the spirit of the place, to ‘a reality more real’.

Over in the main house I catch up with Andrew Loukes, the National Trust’s House and Collections Manager at Petworth, in the North Gallery. As we re-examine J.M.W. Turner’s skies Andrew says “Very few artists can paint like Turner and get it just right with his sheer virtuosity and ability to look at the world anew.” I am reminded how extraordinary Petworth’s own collections are.
Skyscape allows us to celebrate our shared experience of the sky and offers a fresh perspective.

I am delighted that Toovey’s are once again supporting Petworth House’s exhibition program. Skyscape is a revealing exhibition and runs until 18th March 2020. For more information on the exhibition, to book tickets and for opening times visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/petworth.

Paul Nash Retrospective at Tate Britain

Paul Nash’s ‘Equivalents for the Megaliths, c.1935, collection and © Tate

Tate Britain is currently hosting a major retrospective exhibition of the work of the artist Paul Nash (1889-1946) which runs until 5th March 2017.

Paul Nash is often thought of as an essentially English artist but between the wars he also sought to champion the hope embodied in continental modernism, defending Picasso and experimenting with abstraction before embracing Surrealism. These themes are to the fore of Tate’s exhibition.

Clare Neilson, Photograph of Paul Nash, Pallant House Gallery, The Clare Neilson Gift through the Art Fund

Nash was drawn to objects sculpted by nature and had what some have described as an overriding habit of metaphor. Trees, for example, could take on the character of stones. This serves to highlight the poetic nature of his painting and how firmly rooted he was in the English tradition. Indeed, his earlier work is influenced by the 19th century English Romantic tradition of William Blake (who like Nash lived in Sussex), Samuel Palmer and Dante Gabrielle Rossetti. With this in mind, you could forgive John Piper for including one of Nash’s paintings in his 1943 book ‘British Romantic Artists’. Nash was less than pleased. It was the word ‘romantic’ which bothered him and he referred, instead, to the ‘poetic’. Certainly, as an artist he returned again and again to the poetry of the English landscape. He sought to look beyond the immediate to what he referred to as the ‘genius loci’, the spirit of the place, to ‘a reality more real’.

These qualities are apparent in the works on display at Tate.

The exhibition holds in tension, but fails to make explicit, the particularly English quality in Paul Nash’s paintings – the ability to embrace the modern and the future with a quality of optimism and hope whilst keeping an eye fixed firmly on the past.

His palette and subject matter is firmly rooted in the English watercolour tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries.

In ‘Equivalents for Megaliths’, painted in 1935, Paul Nash displays his enduring fascination with the mystical qualities of inanimate objects. The ancient megaliths, standing stones, are abstracted in geometric forms drawing inspiration from the stones at Avebury, on the Wiltshire Downs.

Paul Nash’s ‘Spring in the Trenches, Ridgewood’, c.1917-1918, Imperial War Museum/Tate

Paul Nash served as a soldier in the trenches of the Great War. He subsequently worked as a war artist on the Western Front between 1917 and 1918 and again during the Second World War. ‘Spring in the Trenches, Ridgewood’ was painted in 1917/1918. It is one of many works in the exhibition which highlights Nash’s powerful, uncompromising and often lyrical depictions of the harsh realities of war. As is typical of Nash, in the devastated landscape behind the figures and trench there is hope as a tree comes into bud and birds fly in the rich blue sky which contrasts with the earth hues in the rest of the composition.

With so many superb works on show this Paul Nash retrospective at Tate Britain is a must see to start your year. It runs until the 5th March 2017. For more information go to www.tate.org.uk.

Closer to home Pallant House Gallery in Chichester has a marvellous collection of paintings, wood engravings, etchings, photographs, collage and illustrated books by Paul Nash including many from the Clare Neilson Gift.

By Rupert Toovey, a senior director of Toovey’s, the leading fine art auction house in West Sussex, based on the A24 at Washington. Originally published in the West Sussex Gazette.