A Review of John Nash: The Landscape of Love and Solace at TOWNER Eastbourne, by Rosie Irvine

“The artist’s main business is to train his eye to see, then to probe, and then to train his hand to work in sympathy with his eye. I have made a habit of looking, of really seeing.”

These words greet the visitor who enters the gallery for this comprehensive exhibition of John Nash’s work. His achievements are displayed chronologically, although the biggest initial impact is made by his paintings from the First World War. Nash served with the Artists Rifles for 14 months from November 1916 until he became an Official War Artist early in 1918, and Over the Top, 1st Artists’ Rifles at Marcoing, 30th December 1917, 1918 and Oppy Wood,1917. Evening, 1918 are famous paintings that recall his active service in the conflict.

John Nash was born in 1893 and grew up in Buckinghamshire with his older brother, Paul who was also an artist and probably the more famous of the two. John was self-taught, and the early landscapes shown here set the tone for his life’s work. He married Christine Kühlenthal, a fellow artist, in 1916 and continued to paint after the War and learnt the new technique of wood engraving. He was a keen plantsman and gardener, and he became an accomplished botanical artist, drawing both wild and garden flowers and providing the illustrations and dustjackets for many books at this time, a number of which are on display here.

In the Second World War he became an Official War Artist once again, along with his friend Eric Ravilious who died on service in Iceland in 1942. A work by Ravilious is displayed here, along with 2 paintings by his widow, Tirzah Garwood, painted in John’s garden. After the war, John and Christine moved to Bottengoms Farm near Wormingford in the Stour Valley in Suffolk, where they lived and worked for the rest of their lives. Nash doubted his own talents at this time, but his friend Edward Bawden wrote to encourage him: ‘Go back to the essential J.N. which is preserved in the early work and see whether some of the subsequent refinement couldn’t be discarded…in those early days you had a much more obvious interest in rhythm which nowadays is less noticeable because of the “conscience” you have for naturalistic detail.’It seems that Nash followed his friend’s advice in his Stour Valley landscapes such as The Barn at Wormingford, 1951, Winter Landscape, early 1950s and Frozen Ponds, 1953, all of which are on display here.

The Nashes travelled widely in the United Kingdom, and more rarely in Europe, and the results of these travels are also displayed, but I think it is the paintings of his own particular locality that are the most successful. John worked well into his eighties and died in 1977.

This is the first major exhibition of Nash’s work since a retrospective at the Royal Academy in 1967. A substantial biography has been published to coincide with the exhibition – Andy Friend: John Nash: the Landscape of Love and Solace 2020, Thames & Hudson Ltd. This book will enable those who are interested in John Nash’s long life and career to learn much more about him.

(The exhibition closes on 26 September)