Paul Nash

Gifted by the Artist to Joan Miles, the mother of the present owner, in 1922

The sheet is fully laid down to a backing sheet, itself fully laid down to a backing card, partially sealed within the Artist's card mount. The top edge of the sheet has been unevenly cut, perhaps taken from a sketch book, with slight rounding to the bottom two corners, and slight creases to the corners, visible upon close inspection. There are pin holes visible in the top right and bottom left corners. There is a single, noticeable crease running vertically from the centre of the bottom edge for approximately 2in, corresponding with a similar crease at the centre of the top edge. There is a further possible very slight crease to the left of this. Elsewhere there are minor traces of surface dirt and matter, with a fine line of time staining of minor time staining along the top edge, and a further trace along the right hand edge, with a few odd scattered traces of early, extremely minor foxing apparent upon close inspection. This excepting the work appears in good overall condition, with strong, fresh colours throughout. The work has very faint pencil squaring marks, visible upon extremely close inspection. Housed within a thin black wooden frame, set behind glass in a cream card mount, titled, dedicated and dated by the Artist. There is some staining to this mount, with a two minor, slight tears at the top left corners. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present lot.
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‘The harsh melancholy of the sea front and waves at Dymchurch provoked a memorable series of paintings dominated by a new kind of geometry – a kind of romantic cubism’ (Eric Newton, Paul Nash, Exhibition Catalogue, Arts Council, 1948, p.5).

In 1921, Nash moved to Dymchurch on the Kent coast having been diagnosed with 'war strain.' He rented a cottage with his wife Margaret to convalesce and the bleak coastline, its sea wall, with the spiking wooden sea defences running down towards the water at regular intervals along the sand, drew out the artist's imagination, and most importantly, drew him back to art. As he later recalled, ‘I begin painting again. The Sea. The Shore. The Wall’ (Paul Nash, Outline, Faber & Faber Ltd, London, 1949, p.219). Developing what was later described by Eric Newton as ‘a kind of romantic cubism’ (Eric Newton, Paul Nash, exh. cat., Arts Council of Great Britain, 1948, p.5), this unique landscape awarded the inspiration that broke from the difficulty he and so many artists of his generation felt in the period immediately following the end of the First World War. Here on the sands, as in his War paintings, Nash played out the struggle between man and nature; a tension as constant as the ebbing tide.

Nash had first travelled to the village in 1919, visiting the French performer Raymonde Collignon and was initially drawn to the nearby Romney Marshes. Upon his move to Dymchurch in 1921, Nash began a new period in his working life – turning briefly to the production of theatrical sets, in particular models made for two plays by his close friend Gordon Bottomly. It was during the production of these small-scale models that Nash met the young Joan Miles, whose parents he had met in the village. She assisted Nash with the production and photography of these small, meticulously produced stage sets, and the two developed a closeness that resulted in the gift of this carefully executed and previously un-recorded watercolour.

Of a small body of similar compositions executed around this date, the landscape takes on a strong theatricality that progresses from the calm and peaceful images, such as the present work, through to the brooding roughness of Winter Sea (1924-36, York City Art Gallery). Dymchurch also provided a continued source of inspiration for the extensive production of engravings and woodcut engravings, including The Wall (1923, Tate) that came to dominate his output. In the present work we are able to witness the artist’s adept renderings of a landscape that remained a continued source of inspiration and fascination throughout the course of his career, to the blocked-colour composition of the same name, executed the following year (Leeds Museum and Galleries), matched beautifully by the painting by his close friend Ben Nicholson, who had visited Nash at Dymchurch in 1923 (Private Collection), through to the eventual culmination of his fascination with the village, Totes Meer (Dead Sea) (1940-1, Tate), which sees the crashing waves littered with the wreckages of fighter planes. Nash left Dymchurch in 1924 due in part to his continued ill-health but he took with him a great deal: the imagery of a landscape into which he could import many of his most challenging and consuming ideas, leaving behind a young girl with a keepsake by one of the most important landscape artists of British history.