1937

As 1937 dawned, Nash’s fascination with Surrealism had begun to ebb. Four years earlier he had written with great enthusiasm about Max Ernst, the co-leader of the movement, extolling his innovative, at times incongruous images which chimed with many of his own concerns, ‘the disconcerting association of birds and flowers, suns and forests – suns which look like targets, forests which more resemble seas.’ But from the mid-Thirties, as Causey has suggested, Nash preferred to be thought a ‘poetic’ painter and mistrusted the designation Surrealist, which he found limiting and unsympathetic. A label rather than a liberating force. ‘I did not find Surrealism’, he later wrote, ‘Surrealism found me’. 1 However, he made clear in an interview in 1937 that Surrealism had also brought inspiration and refreshment, instigating ‘the release of imprisoned thoughts, of poetry, of fantasy.’ 2

Although re-invigorated, Nash remained as restless and peripatetic as ever. Having re-settled in London in 1936 he roamed across southern England seeking ideas, images and motifs. Possibly his most memorable sojourn of that period was across the stone-strewn memoryscape of Avebury in ancient Wiltshire where he had been mesmerised by the avenues of monoliths and conical earthworks. His large watercolour Landscape of the Megaliths represents the summation of his sensations, and spiritual response to the site, unfettered by the need for direct observation. For many observers of his art this evocative artwork answered the enigmatic riddle he had posed years before in his statement in Unit One:

Last summer I walked in a field near Avebury where two rough monoliths stand up, sixteen feet high, miraculously patterned with black and orange lichen, remains of an avenue of stones which led to the Great Circle. A mile away, a green pyramid casts a gigantic shadow. In the hedge, at hand, the white trumpet of a convolvulus turns from its spiral stem, following the sun. In my art I would solve such an equation. 3

Elements of his travels in Dorset would be referenced in a number of Nash’s paintings derived from his sojourn in Wiltshire. A postcard of the excavations in Maiden Castle in 1934, offered him the image of a wooden ladder emerging from the depths of a prehistoric dwelling pit. Ladders placed over earthen mounds were a favoured motif in his paintings of Silbury Hill of that period. But in truth, the components of each image were compiled from numerous sources, drawn from counties as distant as Cornwall, with the intention of creating composite landscapes having ‘a character influenced by the condition of Dream.’ Such an ambition transcended mere topography. Nash’s achievement was to create a subtle interfusion of images that transcended specific time ‘whilst retaining the clarity of images characteristic of dreams.’ 4 (Andrew Causey, op.cit., p.266)

Dorset exerted a continuing hold on Nash’s imagination. In his one-man exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in London’s West End in April 1937, nine paintings reflected the spell of the Isle of Purbeck, several combining the visual language of the Surrealists, specifically Max Ernst, blended with the imagery of ancient, petrified trees dotted along the Jurassic coastline near Lulworth Cove.

Margaret and Paul returned again to Dorset in July 1937 for a five-day stay with Archie and Janet Russell. From their roof terrace Paul painted a watercolour, ‘Ballard from Scar Bank’. Taking in an expansive view of the white cliffs of Ballard Down, the picture (892) describes the architectural features of the house and the large statue of the female nude mounted over the main door. They returned to Dorset again in the Autumn, between 17th and 24th September, staying at Furzebrook House, near Wareham, with Tom and Gillian Barnard who had hosted previous visits by the Nashes. During this visit Gillian drove Nash to Creech Folly and Kimmeridge, where he made studies for watercolours and for the Shell ‘Landmark’ series, featuring the Clavell Tower. The Barnard’s owned the site of the Blue Pool, a picturesque turquoise waterhole popular for day trippers, which had been painted by Augustus John in 1920. Nash made three separate renditions of the pool.

In all it was a productive year for Paul Nash. He completed thirty finished artworks as compared to only 13 in 1936 (largely because of his commitment to the Shell Guide) but fewer than the 63 pieces completed in 1935, the height of his industrious output during a settled period in the Purbeck. It had also been a turbulent time in his personal life: his passionate romance with Eileen Agar had ended in July 1936, a break made more painful when she struck up a new relationship with Surrealist artist Paul Eluard, a fellow exhibitor of both. When Agar had ended the affair, Nash wrote ‘If we break now, we break at the peak of our flight. Where we had climbed like two birds who make love in mid-air heedless of where they soar. We have not yet taken down our bright sky’.

1938

Circle of the Monoliths, which Nash offers as a gift to John and Myfanwy Piper, is the only painting of the year that draws directly on Dorset.

In a lengthy picture note, Nash described its origin to his dealer, Dudley Tooth:

Circle of the Monoliths is a picture of the kind of dream that might come to a sleeper who had lately who had spent hours on the shore of Swanage Bay where the cliffs are like these cliffs. And not long before the dreamer had walked in a field near Avebury and wondered at the strangely patterned megaliths that stood up here and there between the hedges. Perhaps each place made a very deep impression, deeper than he knew. But in the dream the sea invades the fields, the hedges take the places of breakwaters, the great monoliths and their pools of shadow seem to reappear in the form of needles of white chalk, another kind of monolith. And to complete the magic circle, a spout of water rises from the sea in a narrow cone. I do not say I dreamed the picture. It is simply a painting concerned with two landscapes or a landscape and a seascape of particular character and particular beauty with whose appearance I was intimate, even enchanted. The paralogism of the dream frees me to paint a picture where the two images are fused. (Paul Nash to Dudley Tooth, undated, possibly 1938, Tate Gallery Archive)

Date: 1936-38

Title of artwork:

Landscape from a Dream

Medium and dimensions: Oil, H 52.1 x W 77.5 cm

References:

Anthony Bertram, Paul Nash, the Portrait of an Artist (London: Faber and Faber, 1955) p.247-8.

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat.no.879, p.436.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.49.

Margot Eates (ed.), Paul Nash: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations (London, 1948) p.68, pl. 89.

John Rothenstein, Modern English Painters, Volume Two: Lewis to Moore, (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode,1956) p.111.

Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton

Dated by the artist, by Margaret Nash and in the 1938 Leicester Galleries show as 1938, it was listed for show at Rosenberg & Helft as January 1937 (no.4). The Tate Gallery date of 1936-8 is clearly the correct one (Causey, 1980, p.436).

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

Changing Scene

Medium and dimensions: Oil on canvas, H 66.0 x W 53.4 cm

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.889, p.437.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002)

cat.no.58.

See: http://monsoonartcollection.com/paul-nash/

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

Ballard from Scarbank

Medium and dimensions: Watercolour, H 34.0 x W 54.6 cm

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.892, p.438.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002)

cat.no.59, colour plate 6.

Dorset County Museum, courtesy of Dorset Natural History and Archaeology Society

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

The Blue Pool

Medium and dimensions: Probably pencil and watercolour; dimensions unknown

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.893, p.438.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002)

cat.no.60.

From 17 to 24 September 1937 Nash stayed with the Barnards, the owners of the Blue

Pool, at Furzebrook House a few miles from Wareham. Seven-year-old Tom Barnard junior

was told that the famous artist needed to sleep with seven pillows, because of his asthma.

In the morning, he crept to the door dividing the nursery wing from his parent’s quarters

and peeped through, hoping, in vain as it turned out, that the visitor’s bedroom door

might be open, and he might catch a glimpse of Mr Nash on his seven pillows.

Paul and his wife Margaret had previously visited in March 1935, a few days after the

Barnards had moved into Furzebrook House. With its 200 acres of land - a large garden,

heathland, woodland, eight cottages, a small farm - the estate also enclosed many clay

workings some filled in but several, including the famous Blue Pool, remained as large

pools.

The land had been mined for clay the mid-eighteenth century when Joseph Pike, a clay

merchant from Devon, had started mining in the area, and in 1762 his son, William, drew

up a contract with Josiah Wedgwood for 1100 tons of clay a year. It’s pock-marked cliffs

were photographed by Nash during his several stays.

The Blue Pool had originally been dug in the mid-19th century but was already disused

when Augustus John and his friends came to paint there in 1910.

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

The Blue Pool

Medium and dimensions: Probably pencil and watercolour; dimensions unknown

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.894, p.438.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002)

cat.no.61.

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

The Blue Pool

Medium and dimensions: Pencil and watercolour, H 39.4 x W 57.2 cm, inscribed 'No.3'

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.895, p.438.

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

On 8 June 1935 the Bernard family led a ceremonial opening of their Blue Pool visitor

attraction, with a smart tea house, its own car park and, inevitably, an entrance fee. Paul

Nash, along with his friends Mr and Mrs Archibald Russell of Swanage attended.

Nash later made several drawings, took a number of photographs – one showing a sandy

cliff pock-marked by nesting sand martins (now eroded away) - and he painted several

conventional watercolours of the Blue Pool. Nash stayed again with the Barnards, the

owners of the Blue Pool, at Furzebrook House in 1937 and talked of producing a guide for

the Blue Pool for which he would supply illustrations. Although he was clearly animated

by the location, sadly, no guide was ever published.

There remains a handwritten letter from February 1938 in black ink on folded grey

notepaper (addressed from 3 Eldon Road, Hampstead, NW35) to Cicely Grey:

“My dear Cicely, please come and see us, we'd love to see you again and it will reassure us

both. We thought you had abandoned us as we never heard from you again. I was staying

with Tom and Gillian in October and we used to talk of you. They are steadily making a

nice fat living out of The Blue Pool. I made a drawing of it and we are planning to produce

a sort of guide to the Pool... Of course we should love to come and sample your cook and

sniff the tulips from the country. With our best greetings Paul.”

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

Circle of the Monoliths

Medium and dimensions: Pencil on paper, H 17.8 x W 24.8 cm

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.898, p.438.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002)

cat.no.63.

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

Earth Sea

Medium and dimensions: Pencil and Watercolour on paper, H 38.1 x W 55.9 cm

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.899, p.438.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002)

cat.no.64.

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

Folly Landscape

Pencil, Chalk with colour notes on paper, H 38.7 x W 57.2 cm

Courtesy of Bristol Museums: Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

Also known as Creech Folly; Folly Landscape, Creech, Dorset, and Castel on the Downs

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.900, p.438.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002)

cat.no.65.

J. Wilkes, A Fractured Landscape of Modernity: Culture and Conflict in the Isle of Purbeck  (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2014)

See: Bond’s Folly, or Creech Grange Arch, Dorset – The Folly Flaneuse

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

Kimmeridge Folly

Medium and dimensions: Pencil and watercolour, H 38.1 x W 55.9 cm

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.903, p.438.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.66.

This picture resulted from a Shell advertising contract was used for the lithographic poster in the Shell ‘Follies’ series.

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

Maiden Castle

Medium and dimensions: Pencil and watercolour, H 54.6 x W 76.2 cm

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.907, p.439.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002)

cat.no.67.

Robert Hull Fleming Museum, Burlington, University of Vermont. Gift of American-British Art Centre, New York.

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

Stone Forest

Medium and dimensions: Pencil, chalk and watercolour, H 58.7 x W 38.7 cm

References:

Anthony Bertram, Paul Nash, the Portrait of an Artist (London: Faber and Faber, 1955) p.100.

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.910, p.440.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002)

cat.no.68.

Paul Nash Watercolours, 1919-1946, Another life, Another world, Piano Nobile, 9 September - 22 November 2014.

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

Stone Sea

Medium and dimensions: Pencil and watercolour, H 38.1 x W 54.6 cm

References:

Anthony Bertram, Paul Nash, the Portrait of an Artist (London: Faber and Faber, 1955) p.100.

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.910, p.440.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002)

cat.no.69.

Paul Nash Watercolours, 1919-1946, Another life, Another world, Piano Nobile, 9 September - 22 November 2014.

Date: 1937

Title of artwork:

Sunset at Worth Matravers

Medium and dimensions: Chalk and watercolour, H 17.8 x W 25.4 cm

References:

Anthony Bertram, Paul Nash, the Portrait of an Artist (London: Faber and Faber, 1955) p.245.

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.915, p.440.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002)

cat.no.70.

Margot Eates (ed.), Paul Nash: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations (London, 1948) p.61, pl 83.

Date: 1938

Title of artwork:  

Circle of the Monoliths 

Medium and dimensions: Oil, H 78.7 x W 104.1 cm

Leeds City Art Gallery, UK

References: 

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.922, p.441,

plate 315.

Bertram, Anthony, Paul Nash, the Portrait of an Artist (London: Faber and Faber, 1955, pp.240-1.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.71, p.90.

Digby, George Wingfield, Meaning and Symbol in Three Modern Artists (London: Faber and Faber, 1955), pp.167-71, plate 46.

Margot Eates (ed.), Paul Nash: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations (London, 1948) p.59, 60, 62.

Leeds Art Calendar, Number 117-8, 1996-7.

Rothenstein, John, Modern English Painters, Volume Two: Lewis to Moore, (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode,1956), p.112.

Website: https://theseislands.blog/2017/03/28/unseen-landscapes/

Website: https://eclecticlight.co/2017/03/08/paul-nash-from-ancient-to-surreal-3-1931-1938/

Exhibited London Group 1938 (no.37), reproduced in the catalogue: Paris, Salon d’Automne 1938; Arts Council, 1946 (40); Tate 1948 (45); Belfast 1960 (24); Newcastle 1971 (30) plate 29; Tate 1975 (163).

Collection: Rev. F.R. Holmden from Dudley Tooth Gallery, 1945; Leeds City Art Gallery from Mayor Gallery, 1950.

Date: 1938

Title of artwork:  

Circle of the Monoliths 

Medium and dimensions: Oil, H 71 x W 92 cm

Neither Causey nor Denton directly reference this painting though it is now widely reproduced in publications about Paul Nash and on related websites. This is because it was found painted on the back of Nash’s oil painting The Two Serpents, 1929- 1937. It appears to be the study for the work now in the Leeds collection (Causey, 922). However, its tonality is much darker, the colouration warmer and the foreground busier than the Leeds work. Strewn with hewn white rocks and several dolmens it references paintings from Nash’s work derived from his visits to Avebury (see for example Nocturnal Landscape, 1938, Manchester Art Gallery). However, as in the Leeds painting, the distinctive headland of Ballard Down, Old Harry Rocks and the Pinnacle fill the far distance.

A full description of The Two Serpents (Snakes in the Woodpile), painted between 1929-1937 is available from Sotheby’s, which in its final paragraph states: ‘There is a further painting on the reverse of this canvas which appears to be an unfinished alternative version of Circle of the Monoliths (1938, Leeds City Art Gallery).’

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2011/the-evillfrost-collection-part-i-l11144/lot.13.html