Dorset Landscape

Dorset Landscape, about 1930 oil on canvas by John Nash (1893-1977).

Summertime with deep shadow in foreground; a dense clump of trees beside a stream, seen from an elevated perspective. Trees lean to the left in a strong wind. Beyond rises a small steep hill most of which is tilled for cultivation except for the summit which is left undisturbed. On it stands a small lone tree.

John Nash, the brother of Paul Nash, is one of the most important landscape painters of the 20th century. He had no formal artistic training and besides painting he was also a plantsman and book illustrator. He lived on the Stour Valley on the Suffolk/Essex border, a landscape made famous by two of Britain’s most important landscape painters: Gainsborough and Constable. Nash was not inspired by the landscape paintings of other artists however. His deep empathy with the countryside informed his approach to landscape painting. He painted what he saw. This painting is based on a watercolour that Nash would have painted on the spot on one of his painting trips to Dorset. It shows a well managed modern agricultural landscape.