Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson A.R.A.

(British, 1889-1946)

The Mill-Pond 71.1 x 91.4 cm. (28 x 36 in.) Painted circa 1919

Footnotes

Provenance
Robert Younger, Baron Blanesburgh, G.B.E., P.C. (1861-1946), by 1920
Acquired by the family of the present owner in the 1970s and thence by descent
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
London, The Leicester Galleries, New Works by C.R.W Nevinson, October-November 1919, cat.no.20
Manchester, City of Manchester Art Gallery, Nevinson, July-August 1920, cat.no.2
London, The Leicester Galleries, Memorial Exhibition of Pictures by C.R.W. Nevinson, A.R.A., May-June 1947, cat.no.18

Literature
Malcolm C. Salaman, 'The Art of C.R.W. Nevinson', The Studio, Vol.78, No.321, December 1919, pp.95-101
'C.R.W. Nevinson's Work at the Leicester Galleries', The Ploughshare, November 1919, cat.no.20 (ill.b&w)
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, 'Reminiscences', The Studio, Vol.124, No.597, December 1942, p.197 (ill.)
David Peters Corbett, The Modernity of English Art, 1914-30, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1997, pl.33 (ill.,b&w)

In the aftermath of the First World War, C.R.W. Nevinson wrote that "the immediate need of the art of today is a Cézanne, a reactionary, to lead art back to the academic traditions of the old masters, and save contemporary art from abstraction" (Malcom C. Salaman, The Art of C.R.W. Nevinson, The Studio, December 1919). This is a major departure from Nevinson's pre-war attitude. In 1914 he had emphatically sided with modernity in a Futurist manifesto co-authored with Marinetti, the leader of a movement that defined itself by the desire for an unrelenting break from the past. But in the context of the present work, first shown in 1919 in Nevinson's 'Peace Exhibition', the quote is enlightening from a number of perspectives.

The Mill-Pond is certainly Cézanne-esque. The slanting brushwork instantly recalls the French master, shimmering in patches juxtaposed by colour and angle. When compared to Cézanne's Lac d'Annecy (1896, The Courtauld), one sees the similarity in palette, and the style of the trees as they line the right bank of the pond, creating a stage-curtain framing the scene at an angle typical of Cézanne's unorthodox eye for space. More prominent in both works, though, are the flat-coloured houses viewed from across the pond, their reflections dancing back across the water surface towards the easel, emboldened by pronounced black outlines leading the way. The smaller, closer scale of The Mill-Pond allows Nevinson to explore in greater detail certain features that enhance the textural variety of the work, such as the duller, matt lily-pads contrasted serenely against the glistening water surface, and the grassy reeds leaning against the brushwork of the sky.

The stylistic range of Nevinson's 'Peace Exhibition' was noted by critics at the time, seen by some as a sign of indecisiveness, and The Mill-Pond is undoubtedly in contrast with some of his more radical works. A century on, however, many would agree wholeheartedly with his refusal "to use the same technical method to express such contradictory forms as a rock and a woman" (David Peters Corbett, The Modernity of English Art, 1914-30, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1997, p. 151). As mentioned, this pragmatism was not on show during the early 1910s, at the height of his Futurist engagement. But the Great War would gradually bring a powerful wave of nostalgia over the British imagination for a time (largely fantasised) before Modernism had facilitated the horrors of those four years, and this inevitably brought into question the more dogmatic Futurist ideas.

In light of this, the opening quote fits rather more neatly than it may at first seem. Returning to a closer inspiration from the source meant stripping back a few layers of radical Modernism, inching closer to the initial break from Academic traditions, albeit in reverse. As Nevinson took a contemplative step back for some of the works on display at the 'Peace Exhibition', he allowed a more direct influence from Cézanne to come through. In doing so, he captured the calm rurality for which many at the time longed, preserving for us a unique point in our collective emotional state, one at least temporarily untouched by the dizzying drive towards modernity.

We are grateful to Christopher Martin for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.