Blue Pool
Blue Pool is a flooded, disused clay pit three miles south of Wareham within the Furzebrook estate, a 25-acre park of heath woodland and gorse on the Isle of Purbeck. Dating back to the 17th century, Purbeck ball clay was dug from the pit and used to make fine ceramic products, such as smoking pipes, plates, teapots.
Nash made a single watercolour of the pool, during 1935, his most productive year in Dorset.
A further three watercolours resulted from a stay in the autumn of 1937 with the Barnards at Furzebrook Gardens. In the Dorset Shell Guide (1936) Nash wrote that the strange bright turquoise blue lake ‘must be seen to be believed, and even then it is not always credible.’
Nash wrote to Margaret from Furzebrook, 21 September 1937: ‘I am going to write an article on the Blue Pool with illustrations to be sold at the tea place.’ No such guide has been traced (see Causey, 1980, p.438). Causey observes that this group of watercolours mark a point where Nash increased the richness of his colouring after the ascetic and thinner handling of the early thirties towards a richer, fuller paintwork of his later style.
Amongst the large portfolio of black and white photographs taken by Paul Nash (1,267 negatives held by the Tate Gallery, TGA 7050 PH) there are several of the steep banks and waters of the Blue Pool (see for example TGA 7050 PH / 936, 937, 938, 939, 940) each dated September 1937.They were presented to the Tate by the Paul Nash Trust in 1970.
Paul Nash
The Blue Pool, Dorset
1935
Pencil and watercolour
H 38.1 x W 55.9 cm
References:
Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.826
Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.14
Paul Nash
The Blue Pool
1937
Probably pencil and watercolour
H 38.1 x W 55.9 cm
References:
Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.893
Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.60
Paul Nash
The Blue Pool
1937
Probably pencil and watercolour
Dimensions unknown
References:
Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.894
Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.61
Paul Nash
The Blue Pool
1937
Pencil and watercolour
H 39.4 x W 57.2 cm
Inscribed ‘Blue Pool No 3’
References:
Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.895
Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.62
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6368535
https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/The-Blue-Pool/1A446A995E8349FC96393372132F7AD9