Colchester Docks

Details

John Northcote Nash, R.A. (1893-1977)
Colchester Docks
signed 'John Nash' (lower right)
oil on canvas
25 x 30 in. (63.5 x 76.2 cm.)
Painted circa 1932-33.
To be sold with the correspondence between John Nash and Miss Phyllis Edwin of May and June 1947.

Provenance

Purchased by Miss Phyllis Edwin directly from the artist on 4 June 1947, and by descent to the present owner.

Literature

'A Picture Colchester Should Possess', Essex County Standard, 23 May 1947.
Exhibition catalogue, John Nash, London, Royal Academy, 1967, p. 6, no. 55.
Exhibition catalogue, John Nash, Chelmsford, Chelmsford and Essex Museum, 1971, no. 25.

Exhibited

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, John Nash, catalogue not traced.
London, Royal Academy, John Nash, September - October 1967, no. 55.
Colchester, The Minories, John Nash, 1967, no. 36.
Chelmsford, Chelmsford and Essex Museum, John Nash , April - May 1971, no. 25: this exhibition travelled to Worthing, Museum and Art Gallery, June - July 1971.

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.

Lot Essay

In a letter to Miss Phyllis Edwin dated 7 May 1947, John Nash wrote, 'I should be glad for you to have the "Colchester Docks" picture if you like it', and in June of that year she purchased it for £60. The picture was also sought after by Colchester Art Society, of which Nash was a founding member in 1946, later becoming its president. An article was published in the Essex County Standard on 23 May 1947 praising the painting: 'Mr Nash's fine painting of our local dockland should be bought for the town of Colchester ... It is time that one of his works was the property of this town and its people, and what more suitable work than this in question?'.

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