Trained at the Slade School of Art, and following the romantic traditions of first Rossetti
and then Blake, Paul Nash is regarded as one of the twentieth century's most successful
artists. His decimated landscapes of World War I are perhaps the most memorable
painted by any official war artist.
Following the war, Nash continued to paint landscapes finding inspiration in ancient
burial mounds and iron age forts. It has been said of Nash that `no artist has interpreted
the beauty and rhythm of the English countryside as perfectly as he'. His paintings
gradually became more abstract and he became a leading exponent of the Surrealism
movement. Everyday objects placed into the scenes lent them new meaning and
symbolism. He was also a prolific book illustrator, textile designer, theatre designer
and photographer. World War II saw him undertake Official War Artist duties for a
second time and his anthropomorphic depictions of aircraft and his symbolically rich
landscapes are some of the best known artworks from the period.
He was also a wonderful writer. This autobiography - sadly filed way at the outbreak
of World War II and unfinished - paints a vivid picture of the early part of Nash's
life. Enticingly, his biographical notes, also reproduced in this edition, offer a skeletal
framework for the rest of the book.