NASH, John

1893 - 1977

John Northcote Nash was born at Kensington, London on 11 April 1893, the younger brother of the artist Paul Nash (11 May 1889–11 July 1946), sons of William Harry Nash (23 June 1848-25 February 1929), a barrister-at-law, and his wife Caroline Maude Jackson (17 December 1859-14 February 1910), eldest daughter of Capt. Milbourne Jackson, R.N., who married at Windsor Parish Church on 1 June 1887. By 1901, the family had moved to Woodlane House, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire and his mother died in a mental institution in 1910. John was educated at Langley House School in Slough and at Wellington College, Berkshire and his first job was as a newspaper reporter which he abandoned in 1912 and settled on art. With no formal art training, in 1913, together with his brother Paul, had his first exhibition at the Dorien Leigh Galleries, 8 Bruton Street, Bond Street, London and was invited to join both the London Group of Artists and the Friday Club. In 1914 he began painting in oils and the following year joined Harold Gilman (1876-1919) in the Cumberland Market Group and exhibited with Gilman, Charles Ginner (1878-1952) and Robert Bevan (1865-1925) at the Goupil Gallery. He enlisted in the Artists Rifles in November 1916 and from January 1918 was an official war artist. He married at St James's Church, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire on 30 May 1918, Dorothy Christine Kühlenthal (29 January 1895-8 November 1976), only child of William Henry Kühlenthal, a merchant chemist of Gerrards Cross. They lived at Gerrards Cross until 1921 when they moved to Lane End House, Meadle, Princes Risborough, their only child, William, was born in 1930 who died when he fell out of the back of a moving car in 1935, aged 4. In 1919 elected a member of the New English Art Club, in 1920 a founder member of the Society of Wood Engravers and in 1923 became a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and exhibited with the Friday Club and from 1921 was the art critic on ‘The London Mercury’. He worked in Dorset in 1923 and in Bath and Bristol during 1924 tutoring at the Ruskin School of Art at Oxford until 1929. In 1929 he was working in Essex and Suffolk, where he purchased a summer cottage at Bures in Suffolk, and taught at the Royal College of Art in London 1934-1940, working on wood engravings, lithographs, etc. In 1939, an artist teacher at the Royal College Arts Board Education, living at Headle, Wycombe, Buckinghamshire with his wife and on the outbreak of the Second World War, joined the Observer Corps moving in 1940 to the Admiralty as an official war artist with the rank of Captain in the Royal Marines being promoted Acting Major in 1943 before relinquishing his commission in November 1944. He exhibited at the Royal Academy when living at Bottengoms Farm, Wormingford on the Suffolk/Essex border, joining the staff of the Royal College of Art in 1945 and awarded a C.B.E. in 1964. John Northcote Nash died at Wormingford, Colchester, Essex on 23 September 1977. He was close friends with the writer Ronald Blythe (1922-2023), who dedicated his best-selling book ‘Akenfield’ to the artist. Aylesbury County Museum hold a collection of his works.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Bottengoms Farm, Wormingford, Essex
1946 31 Landscape with Farm Buildings
         747 Autumn Landscape - watercolour
         830 Winter Morning - watercolour
         870 The Stour near Wormingford - watercolour
         914 Study of an Old Barn - watercolour
1947 76 Farm Buildings
         725 Variations on a Theme- watercolour
         736 Cornfield by a Wood- watercolour
         737 Farm Buildings and Pond - watercolour
         860 Landscape: Evening - watercolour
1948 769 Romantic Landscape: Wales - watercolour
         781 Saltings: Llanmadoc - watercolour
         801 Farm by the Sand Dunes - watercolour
         807 Landscape near Stoke by Nayland - watercolour
         877 The Hotwells, Bristol: Night - watercolour
         902 Summer: Stoke by Nayland - watercolour
1949 710 Winter Scene
         871 The Dying Fir Wood - watercolour
         893 Marshland, Dunwich - watercolour
         916 Path in a Woodland Garden - watercolour
         926 Westleton Quarry, Suffolk - watercolour
         948 Study of Trees, Dunwich - watercolour
1950 97 Harvest, Wormingford
         798 North Tor - watercolour
         845 Pond and Barns - watercolour
         849 Wooded Cliff above the Maltings - watercolour
         863 Penrice Gower - watercolour
         891 Disused Quarry - watercolour
1951 48 Late Summer, Stoke by Nayland
         687 Wood Interior - watercolour
         711 Farmhouse at Llangeneth - watercolour
         736 The River Stour, Boxted - watercolour
         744 The Torrent - watercolour
         745 Farm below the Mountain - watercolour
1952 14 The Lake
117 Rocky Foreshore
858 Moel Dhu – watercolour
874 The Courtyard: Langharne Castle - watercolour
922 Group of Trees at Chicknell - watercolour
1953 105 The Barn
         141 A Panorama of Pyramids
         740 China Clay Pits - watercolour
         752 River Stour: Evening - watercolour
         796 Oaks by the Sea - watercolour
         800 Old Pumping Station, Carthew - watercolour
1954 40 Landscape
1955 47 Wormingford: Winter
74 The Barn
715 Fallen Trees - watercolour
733 Night in the Forest - watercolour
737 Primaeval Forest, Butley: Evening - watercolour
757 China-clay Pits, Carthew - watercolour
1956 100 Bridehead Lake, Little Bredy
         681 French Landscape - watercolour
         696 Landscape near Montjean - watercolour
         724 Relics of an Ancient Forest - watercolour
         742 Winter Evening, Wormingford - watercolour
         884 Farm near the River Loire - watercolour
1957 801 The Carp Pond – watercolour
844 Iron Bridge; Shropshire – watercolour
845 Foothills of the Cuillins – watercolour
859 Chartres Cathedral: North Portico – watercolour
860 The Ancient Forest – watercolour
965 Early Spring Flowers, Great Glemham
1958 7 The Lake, Little Horkesley Hall
         440 Spectral Forest
741 Willows, Stoke-by-Nayland - watercolour
803 Late Autumn, Firfe Park - watercolour
846 February Evening - watercolour
865 Crawley Wood, Gower - watercolour
1959 94 Frozen Ponds
725 Wild Garden, Winter - watercolour
761 Little Bredy, Dorset watercolour
768 Deserted Gravel Pit - watercolour
785 The Boathouse - watercolour
791 Cabbage Fields, - Norfolk watercolour
1960 784 Fallen Tree, Bridehead Lake - watercolour
839 China Clay, Matterhorn - watercolour
899 The Waterfall - watercolour
903 Glen Brittle and the Cuillens - watercolour
1961 11 The River Box
271 Pool in Granite Quarry
774 Flooded Gravel Pit
789 Talisker, Isle of Skye
797 Entrance to De Lank Quarry
888 The Crane
1962 35 Dried Flowers
         103 Winter Flowers
         603 Aber Eiddy, Pembrokeshire - watercolour
         615 In the Quiriang, Skye - watercolour
         627 Quiet Harbour - watercolour
         681 Stream by a Mill - watercolour
1963 31 Garden in Winter
         89 Mill Buildings, Boxted
         698 Snow in the Garden
         721 Mountain Stream, Edale
         731 Limestone Quarry, Derbyshire
         750 Double Viaduct, Chapel en le Frith
1964 8 Norfolk Landscape
73 Sand Dunes and the Sea, Llangeneth
783 Marloes Bay, Pembrokeshire
784 Old Canal, Wormingford
790 Claydon Pits, Ipswich
794 Llanmadoc, Gower
1965 131 The Enclosed Field
874 The Waterfall, Dolanog
880 Trees by a Stream
896 The Great Oak, Myford
917 Chalk pit near Hitchin
978 Montgomery Landscape
1966 47 Derelict Machinery - watercolour
48 Lake Below the Orchards - watercolour
49 Stream between Cornfields - watercolour
50 Boxted House Lake - watercolour
51 Incoming Tide - watercolour
52 Boats at Overy-Staithe - watercolour
1967 58 Rocky Gorge, Mallam
121 Ellen’s Foss, Mallam
123 Llanmadoc, Gower
125 Rendlesham Forest No 2
126 Rendlesham Forest No 1
127 Letheringset, Norfolk
1968 143 Pines and Bracken
151 Llanmadoc, Gower
155 Entrance to a Quarry
159 The Deer Fence, Skye
190 Iken Estuary
771 The Breakwater
1969 38 Shaded Pool
         115 Penanwell Cove - watercolour
         123 'Wheal' Edward - watercolour
         133 Old Flues, Botallack - watercolour
         137 Botallack Head - watercolour
         416 High Seas
1970 80 Disused Canal, Wormingford
         84 Boulders in a Wood
         360 View from a Wood - watercolour
         364 Landscape near Llanrhaeadr
         433 Distillery in Skye
         437 River Wyrnwy
1971 24 Rocky Estuary, Skye
359 Melting Snow
388 Ruins of Dunwich Priory - watercolour
389 In Dunwich Forest - watercolour
392 The Tunnel - watercolour
393 Dyke at Eastbridge - watercolour
1972 461 The Ford
567 Nem Tiaavoag. Slue
660 Incoming Tide
670 Olive Grove, Claviers
675 Landscape near Hadleigh
685 The Quaiariang, Skye
1973 88 Estuary at High Tide
95 China Clay Workings, Cornwall
708 Rendlesham Forest
709 Landscape near Hensborough
710 Bugle, Cornwall
711 Lane to a Farm, Skye
1974 19 Great Birch Trees, Staverton
106 A Watefall, Skye
602 Old Beech Trees, Rendlesham Forest
603 Walls and Trees
604 A Welsh Mountain
605 Edge of a Pine Wood
1975 18 The Grape Harvest
94 The Poplar Grove
592 Rocky Gorge, Provence
593 The Dead Elms
594 Study of Fir Trees
598 The Villa next Door, Clavier
1976 300 Snowfall
416 Dead Forest Giant
426 The River Stour, 1930
427 Trees on a Ridge, Skye
431 River by a Cornish Estuary
432 Two Elms
1977 51 Hills near Kintail - watercolour
52 Giant Beech by the Esturary - watercolour
53 Pathway through the Trees
54 River by Moonlight - watercolour
55 Mountain Stream, Skye - watercolour
56 Ruined Pit Shaft with Boats – watercolour
the late
1978 12 The Garden: Winter
         13 French Landscape - watercolour
         14 The Dingle: Winter
         15 Over the Top
         16 Deserted Sheep Pen
         17 Italian Landscape - watercolour

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Works by This Artist