Paul Nash (11 May 1889 – 11 July 1946) was a British surrealist painter and battle artist, as with ease as a photographer, writer and designer of applied art. Nash was among the most important landscape artists of the first half of the twentieth century. He played a key role in the enhancement of Modernism in English art.
Born in London, Nash grew occurring in Buckinghamshire where he developed a love of the landscape. He entered the Slade School of Art but was destitute at figure drawing and concentrated on landscape painting. Nash found much inspiration in landscapes taking into account elements of ancient history, such as burial mounds, Iron Age hill forts such as Wittenham Clumps and the standing stones at Avebury in Wiltshire. The artworks he produced during World War I are in the middle of the most iconic images of the conflict. After the court case Nash continued to focus on landscape painting, originally in a formalized, decorative style but, throughout the 1930s, in an increasingly abstract and surreal manner. In his paintings he often placed indistinctive objects into a landscape to find the keep for them a supplementary identity and symbolism.
During World War II, although ill with the asthmatic condition that would kill him, he produced two series of anthropomorphic depictions of aircraft, before producing a number of landscapes wealthy in symbolism like an intense mystical quality. These have perhaps become among the best known works from the period. Nash was also a fine book illustrator, and also meant stage scenery, fabrics and posters.
He was the older brother of the artist John Nash.
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