Paul Nash (1889-1946)

Bouquet, 1927

Wood engraving printed in black, signed, titled, dated and numbered from the edition of 50.

The design is almost identical to the oil painting ‘Bouquet’ painted a year later (Causey 597, repr The Studio , Nov 1928, p.360 as ‘Still Life’).

Design (for invitation card), 1922

Printed in black on off-white wove paper, titled Design’ lower centre of the margin and signed below the image and also inscribed ‘1 guinea’

Edition of 12 on yellow paper and on yellow Japon or white wove.

Literature:

‘The Wood-Engravings of Paul Nash’ compiled by Jeremy Greenwood, The Wood Lea Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1997 (Cat No. G55, p92)

Strange Coast, Dymchurch, 1920

Lithograph, 1920, on an off-white wove, signed, titled and dated in pencil, from the edition of 30 (one of 15 impressions on this paper), with margins, 315 x 407mm

The Tide, Dymchurch and The Strange Coast depict views of Dymchurch, Kent where Nash lived from 1920-1923

Titled ‘Strange Coast’ lower left
Signed and dated ‘1920’ lower right

Literature

Postan, Alexander, The Complete Graphic Work of Paul Nash, London, Secker & Warburg 1973
Cat No.L10

The Bay, 1922

Titled ‘The Bay’ lower left
Signed and dated lower right ‘1922’
Inscribed top left margin ‘edition 50’

The same design was used for an oil painting ‘Wall Against the Sea, 1922’. However, the couple only appear in the wood-engraving. The block was destroyed. In 1953 Oliver Simon of the Curwen Press was in correspondence with Nash’s wife Margaret hoping to borrow the block of another wood-egraving ‘Bouquet’. She replied: ‘The only thing I can think of that that has happened to the block is, that it may have been destroyed with one of ‘The Bay’ and one of ‘Dyke by the Sea’. These were two of his very important largest wood-engravings which he unfortunately left in his room at the Royal College of Art while he was teaching there for a short time, and it was discovered that they were put on the fire by a cleaner who thought they were convenient blocks of wood for keeping the furnace going.

Literature:

‘The Wood-Engravings of Paul Nash’ compiled by Jeremy Greenwood, The Wood Lea Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1997 (Cat No. G20, p42)

‘Paul Nash, Book Designs’ Researched and written by Clare Colvin for a Minories Touring Exhibition, (Colchester), 1982, Cat No. 25.13 p84 (not illus)