Pillar and Avenue

Details

Paul Nash (1889-1946)
Pillar and Avenue
signed and dated 'Paul Nash/1929' (lower left)
pencil and watercolour
15 x 22 in. (38 x 56 cm.)

Provenance

S.E. Thornton.
Professor Sir Roger Mynors, by whom purchased from Redfern Gallery, London, January 1947, and by descent.

Exhibited

London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, Contemporary English Drawings, December 1930, no. 38.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

Please note that the literature reference for this work is as follows: A. Causey, Paul Nash, Oxford, 1980, p. 294, pl. 344, cat. 659.

Lot Essay

Andrew Causey comments on the present work; 'It shows the edge of Ascot Park, Stadhampton, Oxfordshire. It is the earliest traceable treatment of the motive that was later used for the oil painting Pillar and Moon [Causey] 985 [1940, Tate, London]. A photograph of the scene by Nash exists [Causey] pl. 343 [see fig. 1], and, if taken in 1929, may have been the earliest photograph used directly for the composition of a picture. The picture reproduced can be dated exactly from a letter from the artist to his wife, 30 Sept. 1929: 'Today Jack [John Nash] and I go to Oxford and tomorrow I depart to Souldern.' A journey by road from Meadle to Oxford could have passed by Ascot Park.

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