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Lot Essay
Nevinson knew of Wyndham Lewis’ reputation from studying at the Slade between 1909-1912, however they first seem to have actually met in the early months of 1913. By the summer of this year, Nevinson was showing a distinct interest in Futurism, painting his first Futurist works which were exhibited at the Doré galleries that October. His relationship with Vorticism was, however, problematic. Ironically, in mid-November 1913 he suggested to Lewis that the title his new avant-garde magazine that would launch Vorticism 'BLAST.' But within a couple of months, he and Lewis had fallen out due to how Nevinson mistakenly asserted in a letter to The Observer newspaper that Lewis and his followers were about to become members of the Futurist movement when in actual fact, Lewis was very keen to maintain his independence from Futurism.
Nevinson created this superbly evocative and compelling drawing in a simplified stylised Cubo-Futurist manner early in 1916; most likely after he had received an honourable discharge from the Royal Army Medical Corps (based June 1915-January 1916 at the Third London General Hospital, Wandsworth, South London). By now it was Nevinson’s practice to work on the efficacy of an effective composition with an initial sketch in monochrome: pen and ink on paper and also in charcoal or pastel. In his war art he had been quick to adopt this approach with regard to the dynamic Futurist composition in oils he exhibited in March 1915 as Returning to the Trenches (1914-15, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa) and Commander Samsom Pursuing a Taube (1915, Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon).
As with so many examples of his early visual response to the First World War, the resulting composition gained a great deal from direct personal visceral experience. For about a month, between mid-November 1914 and mid-December 1914 he had driven a Mors Motor Ambulance for the Quaker-organised Friends Ambulance unit up and down the often-shelled road from the Unit’s main hospital in the Dunkirk suburb of Malo-les-Bains to its advanced dressing station situated in a convent on the outskirts of the southern Belgian city of Ypres. Later in his autobiography, Paint and Prejudice (published in 1937) Nevinson recalled:
‘It was at Woesten [en route to Ypres with his Mors ambulance] that I had a shell go clean through the back of my ambulance ... I was amazed and a trifle indignant. Certainly, I was not as frightened as I ought to have been ... if my van had not been a flimsy affair, it would have exploded. Indeed, I had some nervous indigestion but I slept like a log. Of this I am inordinantly proud ... I now know very well I was too vain to show much fear. It was only after a succession of events that a man’s nerves cracked ...’
Early in March 1915 Nevinson exhibited some of his first compositions inspired by the war, including the iconic Returning To The Trenches with the London Group. He then served for several months (June 1915-January 1916) as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps at Wandsworth. He then worked on a series of stunning war images in his first floor studio at the family home at 4 Downside Crescent, Belsize Park including: A Dawn, 1914 (Private Collection); La Patrie (Birmingham Art Gallery) and On The Road To Ypres (Private Collection). The version of On The Road to Ypres in oils was probably first exhibited late in May 1916 at the New English Art Club from which it was purchased by Gallipoli veteran and Henry Nevinson’s friend the Liberal MP Henry Cavendish-Bentinck. A monochrome version of the composition was included in the ‘black and white’ section of Nevinson’s first solo exhibition – which opened towards the end of September 1916 at the Leicester Galleries – but it is not clear whether this was a pen and ink drawing or the drypoint version of the composition.
Reviewing Nevinson’s exhibits at the New English Art Club, the critic of The Athenaeum remarked justly of On The Road To Ypres that it offered convincing proof that Nevinson was ‘irresistible’ the closer he came to being ‘monochromatic’ with a chilling hint of ‘steel just flecked with rust or blood.’ This composition lingered in the minds of many who had seen and admired it; in 1928 the great war novelist Henry Williamson remarked of Nevinson’s early war art, including On The Road To Ypres, that virtually alone he had produced imagery truly worthy of that ‘epoch of horror.’
We are very grateful to Dr Jonathan Black for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Nevinson created this superbly evocative and compelling drawing in a simplified stylised Cubo-Futurist manner early in 1916; most likely after he had received an honourable discharge from the Royal Army Medical Corps (based June 1915-January 1916 at the Third London General Hospital, Wandsworth, South London). By now it was Nevinson’s practice to work on the efficacy of an effective composition with an initial sketch in monochrome: pen and ink on paper and also in charcoal or pastel. In his war art he had been quick to adopt this approach with regard to the dynamic Futurist composition in oils he exhibited in March 1915 as Returning to the Trenches (1914-15, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa) and Commander Samsom Pursuing a Taube (1915, Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon).
As with so many examples of his early visual response to the First World War, the resulting composition gained a great deal from direct personal visceral experience. For about a month, between mid-November 1914 and mid-December 1914 he had driven a Mors Motor Ambulance for the Quaker-organised Friends Ambulance unit up and down the often-shelled road from the Unit’s main hospital in the Dunkirk suburb of Malo-les-Bains to its advanced dressing station situated in a convent on the outskirts of the southern Belgian city of Ypres. Later in his autobiography, Paint and Prejudice (published in 1937) Nevinson recalled:
‘It was at Woesten [en route to Ypres with his Mors ambulance] that I had a shell go clean through the back of my ambulance ... I was amazed and a trifle indignant. Certainly, I was not as frightened as I ought to have been ... if my van had not been a flimsy affair, it would have exploded. Indeed, I had some nervous indigestion but I slept like a log. Of this I am inordinantly proud ... I now know very well I was too vain to show much fear. It was only after a succession of events that a man’s nerves cracked ...’
Early in March 1915 Nevinson exhibited some of his first compositions inspired by the war, including the iconic Returning To The Trenches with the London Group. He then served for several months (June 1915-January 1916) as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps at Wandsworth. He then worked on a series of stunning war images in his first floor studio at the family home at 4 Downside Crescent, Belsize Park including: A Dawn, 1914 (Private Collection); La Patrie (Birmingham Art Gallery) and On The Road To Ypres (Private Collection). The version of On The Road to Ypres in oils was probably first exhibited late in May 1916 at the New English Art Club from which it was purchased by Gallipoli veteran and Henry Nevinson’s friend the Liberal MP Henry Cavendish-Bentinck. A monochrome version of the composition was included in the ‘black and white’ section of Nevinson’s first solo exhibition – which opened towards the end of September 1916 at the Leicester Galleries – but it is not clear whether this was a pen and ink drawing or the drypoint version of the composition.
Reviewing Nevinson’s exhibits at the New English Art Club, the critic of The Athenaeum remarked justly of On The Road To Ypres that it offered convincing proof that Nevinson was ‘irresistible’ the closer he came to being ‘monochromatic’ with a chilling hint of ‘steel just flecked with rust or blood.’ This composition lingered in the minds of many who had seen and admired it; in 1928 the great war novelist Henry Williamson remarked of Nevinson’s early war art, including On The Road To Ypres, that virtually alone he had produced imagery truly worthy of that ‘epoch of horror.’
We are very grateful to Dr Jonathan Black for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.