In offering his services, Nash wrote to Kenneth Clark, chair of the War Artist’s Advisory Committee:

“ If I could be given official facilities for recording monsters, I believe I could make something memorable. Monsters include… tanks, aeroplanes, blimps, mechanical personages of all kinds. I see these things as the protagonists of the war. This is the War of the Machines and they have taken on human and animal appearance.” 1

In March 1940 Nash was appointed to work for the Air Ministry, giving renewed opportunity to pursue his fascination with animal and manned flight. Two of his paintings – Down in the Channel, and Raider on the Shore (both from 1940) – feature a generalised view of the chalk cliffs of Swanage Down.

In July, the Nash’s establish home in a flat on the Banbury Road in Oxford, where Paul’s studio gave access to a large garden. However, both his health, and Margaret’s, was often poor. He wrote to Claire Nielson in July 1940:

‘We have had the most awful time. I get very wretched often and pray for death. What can come out of such madness? I could not have dreamed of such horrid depths of the human mind. Worst of all is the defilement of our own people from the stench of the Boches; what shall we be fighting for soon? Margaret has been very unwell. We are quite miserable often.” 2

Several paintings from 1942 have references in their titles to sites in the Purbecks. Ghost in the Shale (1100) makes clear mention of the distinctive shale terraces that mark the edges of Kimmeridge Bay, and the coastline is clearly alluded to in other poetic works of that year, for example Kimmeridgean Ghost (1102).

Paul’s next reference to Dorset was not until three years later. In 1943 he visited Dorset with Lance Sieveking, friend and fellow veteran from the First World War. As a Regional Programme Director for the BBC, Sieveking had a semi-official car and access to petrol coupons.

With Margaret they toured beyond the Isle of Purbeck, as far afield as West Dorset, across Egdon Heath to Portland Bill, Chesil Bank, and Abbotsbury. As well as taking many photographs, Nash drew and painted Maiden Castle and the Giant at Cerne Abbas.

Sieveking later recalled their final forays across the county with great affection:

“…back and forth, across that beautiful county, in sunny days, and warm clear nights, stopping ever and again for Paul to draw, to make notes, to take photographs, and to scan the distance through powerful field-glasses. He said that through field-glasses one sees a landscape that one can see in no other way. And all the while we talked, going to and fro in memory over the past thirty years and laughing and enjoying many of the things we had done together. A weight seemed to lift off Paul’s mind.” 3

Nash was equally moved by the tour, and he thanked his friend profusely:

"...looking back over the great voyage to the hills and the heaths and the sea, it seems all a dream but most fortunately a dream remembered - and so incredibly varied - I shall never quite get over it." 4

Date: 1939

Title of artwork:

Object at Scarbank

Medium and dimensions: Pencil, chalk and watercolour, H 29.2 x W 39.4 cm

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.997, p.446.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.72.

Margot Eates (ed.), Paul Nash: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations (London, 1948) 82b.

Derives from a photograph Nash took at Scarbank House, Swanage, the home of Archibald Russell.

Date: 1940

Title of artwork:

Down in the Channel

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

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat. no.1020, p.450, pl.364.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.73.

National Gallery of South Africa, Capetown, from WAAC, 1947

Date: 1940

Title of artwork:

Raider on the Shore

Medium and dimensions: Chalk and watercolour, H 38.7 x W 56.5 cm

References:

Anthony Bertram, Paul Nash, the Portrait of an Artist (London: Faber and Faber, 1955) p.242.

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat.no.1038, p.451, pl.364.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.74.

Margot Eates (ed.), Paul Nash: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations (London, 1948) p.77, pl 106.

Glasgow Art Gallery, from WAAC, 1947

Date: 1942

Title of artwork:

Ghost in the Shale

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

References:

Anthony Bertram, Paul Nash, the Portrait of an Artist (London: Faber and Faber, 1955) p.242.

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat.no.1100.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.75.

Margot Eates (ed.), Paul Nash: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations (London, 1948) p.80, pl 118b.

See: Ghost in the Shale - Gerrish Fine Art

Date: 1942

Title of artwork:

Ghost of the Megaceros Hibernicus

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

References:

Anthony Bertram, Paul Nash, the Portrait of an Artist (London: Faber and Faber, 1955) p.285, n. 3.

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat.no.1101.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.76.

Margot Eates (ed.), Paul Nash: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations (London, 1948) p.80.

‘Paul Nash Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations’, Lund Humphries, 1948, p.34.

This watercolour from 1942 is one of a series of four on the theme of the ghost. It explores Nash’s interest in the prehistoric landscape and, what he termed, the object-personnage as well as his obsession with the cyclical nature of life and death.

The three related watercolours comprise ‘Kimmeridgian Ghost, The Turtle’ (Courtauld Gallery collection, Causey no.1103), ‘Ghost in the Shale’ (John Creasey Museum collection, Causey no.1100) and ‘Kimmeridgian Ghost’ (whereabouts unknown, Causey no.1102).

In an unpublished book called ‘Picture History’, which included notes on his work from 1933-45 prepared for his dealers Albert Tooth & Sons (1943-45), Nash wrote of this series of watercolours:

“Now I was looking round for a new form and character of object-personage. This came to me eventually in a round-about way through studying a book on palaeontology. Looking at the engraved plates of fossil impressions, it seemed to me these delicate, evocative forms could be revitalised in a particular way. I made a series of drawings of ghost personages, which showed them in the environment they naturally occupied in prehistory. The Ghost of the Shale in the Black Cliff of Kimmeridge Clay, The Turtle on the Dorset Shore, the gigantic ghost of Megaceros Hibernicus (Irish Elk) in the Moonlight Forest...”

For furher information see Gerrish Fine Art

https://gerrishfineart.com/product/ghost-of-the-megaceros-hibernicus/

Date: 1942

Title of artwork:

Kimmeridgian Ghost

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

References:

Anthony Bertram, Paul Nash, the Portrait of an Artist (London: Faber and Faber, 1955) p.286.

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat.no.1102.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.77.

Margot Eates (ed.), Paul Nash: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations (London, 1948) p.80.

Date: 1942

Title of artwork:

Kimmeridgian Ghost, the Turtle

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

References:

Anthony Bertram, Paul Nash, the Portrait of an Artist (London: Faber and Faber, 1955) p.286.

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat.no.1103.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.78.

Margot Eates (ed.), Paul Nash: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations (London, 1948) p.80, pl 118a as Ghost of the Turtle.

Date: 1943

Title of artwork:

Badbury Rings

Medium and dimensions: Pencil and watercolour, H 28.5 x W 39.4 cm

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat.no.1125, p.460.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.79.

A painting from Nash’s tour of Dorset with Lance Sieveking in 1943, and Nash's third artwork of this remarkable earthwork. Two previous, less highly finished pieces were drawn in 1935, one of which was included in the Shell Guide to Dorset, 1936.

Date: 1943

Title of artwork:

Cerne Abbas Giant

Medium and dimensions: Chalk and watercolour, with colour notes, H 29.8 x W 39.4 cm

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat.no.1127, p.460, pl.552.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.80.

Date: 1943

Title of artwork:

Chesil Bank, Abbotsbury

Medium and dimensions: Pencil, chalk and watercolour, with colour notes, H 29.8 x W 39.4 cm

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat.no.1128, p.460, pl.389.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.81.

Date: 1943

Title of artwork:

Maiden Castle

Medium and dimensions: Chalk and watercolour, with colour notes, H 28.6 x W 39.4 cm

References:

Anthony Bertram, Paul Nash, the Portrait of an Artist (London: Faber and Faber, 1955) p.238.

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat.no.1156, p.462, pl.390.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.82.

Stephen Ongpin Fine Arts

https://www.stephenongpin.com/object/790343/0/maiden-castle-dorset

A painting from Nash’s tour of Dorset with Lance Sieveking in 1943, which also resulted in Causey nos.1125, 1127,1128, 1156, and 1157 (a version of 1156 / Denton no.82)

Date: 1943

Title of artwork:

Maiden Castle

Medium and dimensions: Chalk and watercolour, with colour notes, H 36.8 x W 33.7 cm

References:

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1980) cat.no.1157, p.462.

Penny Denton, ‘Seaside Surrealism’ Paul Nash in Swanage (Durlstone, 2002) cat.no.83.

Regarded by Causey as ‘a tracing of 1156’, although the vertical dimensions differ by 10 cm.

Dorset Museum & Art Gallery, Dorchester, Dorset