Paul Nash (1889-1946)

Paul Nash (1889-1946)

Monuments

Pencil and watercolour, 1932

53.5 x 35.9cm

Provenance:

Leicester Galleries, London, 1932;

Where purchased by Mrs May Kingdon;

By descent to her son, Rev H. P. Kingdon;

And by descent

Literature:

The Architects' Journal, 9 November 1932, p.597 (illustrated);

The Architects' Journal, 16 November 1932, p.651;

Paul Nash: Paintings and Watercolours, exh. cat. (London, Tate Gallery, 1975), p.81, no.134;

Andrew Causey, Paul Nash (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1980), pp.209, 419-420, no.737, pl.254

Exhibited:

London, Leicester Galleries, Watercolours by Paul Nash, 1932, no.6;

London, Tate Gallery, Paul Nash, November-December 1975, no.134

Together with two letters from the artist to Mrs Kingdon regarding the clippings from The Architects' Journal (3)

The subject of the present work is the group of stone busts outside the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. Paul Nash lectured at the Oxford Arts Club in May 1932, and in a letter wrote 'I am anxious to do a few drawings in Oxford'. Another watercolour of one of the busts, entitled 'Souvenir of Oxford' was sold at Christie's, London, 12 October 2011, lot 5. Andrew Causey describes the two works as Nash's 'most effective use of statues...in his drawings'.

The present work was illustrated and discussed in The Architects' Journal during a review of the 1932 exhibition at the Leicester Galleries. The reviewer wrote 'for sheer architectural draughtsmanship study the railings in Monuments....each upright is a lovely articulate line, with a thin wash. Every draughtsman knows how difficult it is to give character and beauty to a "plain railing"'. This caused a lively debate in the letters pages of the journal, in which Patrick Abercrombie derided 'the limitations of modern draughtsmanship'. Nash himself replied, calling Abercrombie's letter 'confused', and caused 'partly by some emotional disturbance such as cold rage or accumulated resentment'. The debate continued for several weeks.