John Nash, 1893-1977

• Biography

  Attribute	Value
  Biography	John Nash (brother of Paul) lived near Colchester, Essex, and was a painter in oils and watercolours and a wood engraver of landscapes and still-lifes. He taught at the Royal College of Art, though he had himself received no formal art training, being educated at Wellington College. Encouraged by his brother, he took up painting in 1907 and in 1913 the brothers exhibited together at the Dorien Leigh Gallery, South Kensington. During WW1 he served in the Artists' Rifles and he did some work as an official war artist. A founder member of the London Group, he took an active role in the Group and served on the hanging committee during the Group's early years. He was a founder member of the Society of Wood Engravers in 1920. In 1921 he had his first solo exhibition at the Goupil Gallery in London. He and his brother Paul were very influential figures within the London Group. In November 1917 the 'New Witness' noted: 'Paul and John Nash have an exceedingly distinctive and one might say almost family vision of landscape, perhaps the most distinctive understanding of English landscape since the early English watercolourists, but just because this vision is such an entirely personal one, it is therefore best left uncopied.' During the 1920s he was invited to teach at the Ruskin School, Oxford by Sydney Carline. He began teaching at the Design School of the Royal College of Art in 1934. During WW2 he was appointed an official war artist to the Admiralty. After the war he began exhibiting at the Royal Academy and in 1951 he was elected a Royal Academician. A restrospective of his work was held at the Royal academy in 1967. He designed a poster for LT in 1950. Its subject of the Chilterns may have been chosen when the artist spent time staying with his sister who lived in the area. The design was not used.
  Employment	Designed poster for London Transport, 1950
  Role	Artist,