John Nash

1893-1977

John Nash was born in London, and was the younger brother of artist Paul Nash.

Like his brother he fought in World War I from 1916 to 1918, working as an official war artist from 1918.  From 1924 to 1929 he taught at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford, going on to teach at the Royal College of Art in London from 1934 to 1940. 

Nash had no formal art training but was encouraged by his brother to develop his abilities as a draughtsman. His early work was in watercolour and included biblical scenes, comic drawings and landscapes.  Most of his early paintings depict the themes of war and the most famous of these is 'Over the Top' that now hangs in the Imperial War Museum.

He began painting in oils with the encouragement of Harold Gilman, whose meticulous craftsmanship influenced his finest landscapes such as 'The Cornfield' (1918).  After World War I his efforts went mainly into painting landscapes. The influence of the war, however, continued to linger for many years and this was depicted in his landscape painting. This is particularly evident in 'The Moat, Grange Farm, Kimble', an oil exhibited in 1922.  In this brooding landscape the trees and their tendril-like branches envelope the entire picture.  The dark subtle colours and evening light give the painting a claustrophopic atmosphere.

His painting a few years after the war, is characterised by this sense of bleak desolation that suggests the profound introspection that for many followed the devastation of war. Although Nash had a great love of nature, he often used natural subjects to convey powerful and sensitive thoughts concerning the human condition.