The Grove

A lovely watercolour painting of the interior of a wood - one of Nash’s favourite subjects. The paleness of the overall tonality is uncharacteristic, but clearly indicates a light-filled glade surrounded by a variety of trees, where the canopy of leaves is not too dense to prevent sunlight filtering down to ground level. The dabbing brushstrokes at the top of the sheet capture the dapple of light through foliage, and one or two pencilled instructions to himself (colour notes primarily) suggest that this substantial watercolour was begun in front of the subject but completed in the studio. Allen Freer calls it one of Nash’s finest watercolours of the mid-1930s, ‘with its pale grey central tree in a pose like a ritualist, a dancer participating in the mysteries of the grove.’

A.L.