The Field Path

The Field Path 1918 by Paul Nash (1889-1946). Wastercolour

To bottom left of the composition a man and a woman can be seen walking along a path through a hilly landscape. The man points with his walking stick towards a narrow path leading over the brow of a hill towards woodland beyond above which a flock of birds circle. Rays of bright sunshine break through the cloudy sky.

This watercolour was based on an area of the Chilterns called Whiteleaf Cross, named after an antique cross carved in the side of the hill. It was doubly interesting for Nash because it commanded a good view of his favourite Wittenham Clumps. Nash gave this drawing to his friend and mentor, Gordon Bottomley.

Nash became one of the most evocative painters of the British landscape of the twentieth-century. Along with artists such as Eric Ravilious, Graham Sutherland and John Piper, Nash sought to reconcile, in his words, ‘Going Modern’ with ‘Being British.’