Chesil Bank
Twenty-nine kilometres long and in places 200 metres wide, Chesil Bank is one of only three major shingle beach structures in Britain. Identified geomorphologically as a barrier beach, its name is derived from the Old English ceosel or cisel, meaning ‘gravel’ or ‘shingle’.
Nash made a watercolour of the distinctive topography of the beach on his final tour of the county, taking in much of West Dorset, with Lance Sieveking in 1943.
A long-standing friend and fellow veteran from the First World War, Sieveking had a semi-official car and access to petrol coupons to carry out his work as a Regional Programme Director for the BBC.
With Margaret Nash, they toured beyond the Isle of Purbeck, across Egdon Heath to Portland Bill, Chesil Bank, and Abbotsbury.
Several photographs of the beach, taken from the vantage point of the Isle of Portland were taken in 1935. See Tate Gallery, black and white negative no. TGA 7050PH/967 ‘Chesil Bank from the Isle of Portland’. See also: Simon Grant, Informal Beauty: the Photographs of Paul Nash (Tate Publishing: London, 2016).
https://www.tate-images.com/MC1155-Black-and-white-negative-Chesil-Bank-from-the-Isle.html
Paul Nash
Chesil, Bank, Abbotsbury
1943
Pencil, chalk and watercolour with colour notes
29.8 x 39.4 cm
References:
Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.1128
Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.81
Anna Reid, ‘Paul Nash’s Geological Enigma’, British Art Studies, Issue 10, Landscape Now, 29 November 2018