ABOUT PAUL NASH
Paul Nash (1889 -1946) was one of the finest English landscape painters of his generation. He served as an official war artist in both World Wars. His paintings of the trenches in the First World War were powerful evocations of destruction.
In the Second World War he was employed by the Air Ministry and created iconic works such as Totes Meer, a landscape covered by wrecked German aircraft.
Paul Nash in his studio with two versions of 'Landscape of the Vernal Equinox'.
A talented wood-engraver and book illustrator, Nash's work embraced watercolours, oils, photography and designs for textiles and posters. He wrote extensively on art and became a distinguished critic.
As a pioneering Modernist, Nash was a key figure of the British Surrealist movement. He was passionately drawn to places in the landscape with ancient, mystical connections such as the Avebury stone circle and The Wittenham Clumps, calling these his 'genius loci'.
Suffering from asthma, he died at the age of 57. He is buried at St Mary the Virgin, Langley Marish in Buckinghamshire where his family had their roots.
Nash's brother John was also a celebrated artist and they exhibited together early in their careers.
