Chichester gallery Pallant House will allow public access to an extensive range of Paul Nash's early wood engravings, etchings, photographs, collages and correspondence after buying the collection from the godson of one of the artist’s closest friends.
Paul Nash, The Dyke by the Road (1922). Wood engraving© Tate London 2013
Clare Neilson, Photograph of Paul Nash© Clare Neilson
Tyger, Tyger, a collage showing a colour engraving of a tiger against a photo of a ruin from the forest, bears the words “Collage for Clare”. And there are more of the artist’s personal inscriptions within his illustrated books, with Genesis, Places, Mister Bosphorous and the Muses and Shakespeare’s A Midsommer Nights Dreame coming under his designs during the 1920s.
Admirers of Nash – widely regarded as one of the most important landscape artists of the period – will also enjoy a series of early wood engravings.
The Art Fund has helped the popular gallery acquire the works from Jeremy Greenwood and Alan Swerdlow, who have cared for them since Nash’s death in 1946.
“The collection is a significant addition to the gallery’s collection of modern British art,” said Simon Martin, the Head of Collections and Exhibitions.
“Not only does it include remarkable wood engravings and collage, but it also provides a fascinating and personal view into friendship and artistic patronage in the 1930s and 1940s.”
Highlights will go on display at the gallery from April 9 – June 30 2013.
More pictures:
Tyger Tyger (circa 1938). Collage of a colour engraving of a tiger against a photograph by Paul Nash of a ruin in the Forest of Dean© TATE London 2013
