During World War Two, although sick with the asthmatic condition
that would kill him, he produced two series of anthropomorphic depictions of
aircraft, before producing a number of landscapes rich in symbolism with 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
designed stage scenery, fabrics and posters
He was the older brother of the artist John Nash.
From 1942 onwards, Nash often visited the artist Hilda Harrisson at her
home, Sandlands on Boars Hill near Oxford, to convalesce after bouts of
illness. From the garden at Sandlands, Nash had a view of the Wittenham
Clumps, which he had first visited as a child and had painted both before
World War One and again, as a background, in 1934 and 1935. He now
painted a series of imaginative works of the Clumps under different aspects of
the moon. Paintings such as
Landscape of the Vernal Equinox
(1943)
and
Landscape of the Moon's Last Phase
(1944) show a mystical landscape
rich in the symbolism of the changing seasons and of death and rebirth.
In his
final years, Nash produced a series of paintings, including
Flight of the
Magnolia
(1944), which he called 'Aerial Flowers' that combined his
fascination with flying and his love of the works of Samuel Palmer.
Nash also
returned to the influence of William Blakethat had so affected his early art,
for example in the series of gigantic sunflowers including
Sunflower and
Sun
(1942),
Solstice
of
the
Sunflower
(1945)
and
Eclipse
of
the
Sunflower
(1945), based on Blake's 1794 poem "Ah! Sun-flower".
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