The Edge of the Orchard, Whiteleaf

Details

John Nash, R.A. (1893-1977)
The Edge of the Orchard, Whiteleaf
signed and dated 'John Nash/1919' (lower right)
pencil, watercolour, gouache and ink on paper
10 ¾ x 12 ½ in. (27.4 x 31.7 cm.)
Executed in 1919.

Provenance

Purchased directly from the artist by the present owner.

Literature

A. Freer, John Nash 'The Delighted Eye', Aldershot, 1993, p. 61, illustrated.
A. Lambirth, John Nash: Artist & Countryman, Norwich, 2019, p. 107, illustrated.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Brought to you by

Philip Harley

pharley@christies.com +44 207 389 2687

Lot Essay

One of Nash’s favourite strategies of pictorial construction was to frame a composition with the overhanging boughs of trees, as if the viewer was already inside the wood and looking further in (or out). This highly effective device for involving the viewer is used very successfully here, and we are drawn into the orchard with its underplanting and wild foliage, contained within a double fence of (probably chestnut) palings. The pronounced verticals of the trees and repeated fence posts is disordered and balanced by the lavish interlocking tree canopies, the horizontality of which is in turn echoed by the clumps of underplanting. A beautifully controlled yet immensely natural composition, full of energy and movement.

A.L.

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