5th Dec, 2025 11:00
Twentieth Century Art & Design
Sold for £23,000
Paul Nash (1889-1946) - Near the Somme, watercolour and pencil on paper, 19 x 25cm
Provenance: with Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, where acquired by Peter G.H. Wilson, 18th February 1958, and thence by descent.
Paul Nash spent two and a half years at home as part of the Territorial Army after the outbreak of World War I. He was enlisted in the Hampshire Regiment and received officer training in 1916, then sent to Le Havre and, along with the rest of his company, journeyed through France to the Western Front at Ypres in early 1917. Prior to being invalided home a few months after his arrival at the front with a broken rib, the accident likely saving his life as most of his company were killed out during the ill-fated assault on Hill 60 Salient, Nash completed approximately twenty works detailing life on the Western Front; these being shown, to much public interest and critical acclaim at The Goupil Gallery, London. The short period after returning to Ypres in November 1917, returning to the front as an official war artist, also proved productive, with Nash, who was horrified by the extreme damage the constant fighting and poor weather conditions had inflicted upon the landscape, producing further works on paper, bringing his output to approximately sixty works on paper. Some of the war torn landscape were integral to producing the oils, mostly painted the following year, which have become some of the most iconic images of the Western Front.
The present work most likely dates from March 1917, when Nash’s division was travelling through northern France toward the front at Ypres. Works from this period rarely come to market, with nearly all from this brief and historically important period acquired by public institutions shortly after the war.
Condition Report
Tear to right hand edge of paper, approx. 20mm long.
Small area of surface dirt to left hand side, approx. 5x4cm, with another smaller area next to it.
Not examined out of glazed frame.
Presents well overall.
Condition reports must be considered as a matter of opinion and not fact.
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