The Grove

Details

John Nash, R.A. (1893-1977)
The Grove
signed 'John Nash' (lower right)
pencil and watercolour on paper laid on card
22 ½ x 18 in. (57.2 x 45.5 cm.)
Executed in the mid-1930s.

Provenance

Mrs C.E. Bennion, by 1967.
with Hamet Gallery, London, November 1970, where purchased by the present owner.

Literature

A. Freer, John Nash 'The Delighted Eye', Aldershot, 1993, p. 71, illustrated.
A. Lambirth, John Nash: Artist & Countryman, Norwich, 2019, p. 174, illustrated.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by John Nash, September - October 1967, ex-catalogue.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Brought to you by

Philip Harley

pharley@christies.com +44 207 389 2687

Lot Essay

A lovely watercolour painting of the interior of a wood - one of Nash’s favourite subjects. The paleness of the overall tonality is uncharacteristic, but clearly indicates a light-filled glade surrounded by a variety of trees, where the canopy of leaves is not too dense to prevent sunlight filtering down to ground level. The dabbing brushstrokes at the top of the sheet capture the dapple of light through foliage, and one or two pencilled instructions to himself (colour notes primarily) suggest that this substantial watercolour was begun in front of the subject but completed in the studio. Allen Freer calls it one of Nash’s finest watercolours of the mid-1930s, ‘with its pale grey central tree in a pose like a ritualist, a dancer participating in the mysteries of the grove.’

A.L.

More from The Delighted Eye: Works from the Collection of Allen and Beryl Freer

View All