Paul Nash

(British, 1889-1946)

Ploughed Fields at Iden 46 x 34.4 cm. (18 1/8 x 13 1/2 in.)

Footnotes

Provenance
With The Leicester Galleries, London, 1950, where purchased by the family of the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.

Writing in his autobiography, Outline, in 1911 Nash explains his decision to 'go in for nature' and therefore leave London for his parental home, Wood Lane House at Iver Heath in Buckinghamshire. The property had been specially built for the family in 1901 and included a plot of about an acre and a half, bordered by great elm trees and carefully planted with maturing shrubbery. The morning room, which Nash used as his studio, looked over what he called the 'bird garden', a place he described as being magical and highly influential. From here, he began to examine the simplicity of landscape and a truth to nature which would lead to a number of highly original works over the coming years.

Ever since his childhood visits to Kensington Gardens he had been drawn to trees, which held a spiritual quality for him and their inclusion at the centre of the present work, stripped of leaves so we can fully appreciate their eccentric growth, is entirely typical of his pre-war style. The tranquillity of the scene is heightened by the inclusion of numerous birds, an emblem of freedom for the artist, who fly amidst the clean sky in what we interpret as a pleasant day in the English countryside. The shadows that are cast across the land from the foreground of the composition add an element of mystery with the artist's technique of scratching into the surface of the sheet, a technically accomplished reminder that we stand amongst working fields that have recently been ploughed. Nash was sparing with colour at this time but the subtle inclusion of a mild blue wash at various points demonstrates how carefully these early works were constructed. The serenity of this and other works like it is juxtaposed with Nash's imminent enlisting as part of the war effort and subsequent deployment to the western front.

In November 2014 Bonhams set a new world auction record for a work on paper by Paul Nash with the simply titled A Drawing (1913) achieving £212,500.