Paul Nash: War Artist, Surrealist

Paul Nash (1889-1946) was a member of the Slade School's second surge of noteworthy artists, a group strongly influenced by modernism while retaining a bit of traditional British caution in the matter. A lengthy Wikipedia biography is here and here is a short note from the Tate.

It seems that Nash had a deficiency exposed while at the Slade: he wasn't very good at depicting people. As a result, he generally painted landscapes. During the 1930s when Surrealism became fashionable, he did works in that vein based on landscape art.

Nash is best known as a war artist, particularly for his works featuring the Great War (he also depicted World War 2). Unlike many men commissioned to do war art, Nash had had combat experience as an officer and knew full well what that war was like.

Gallery

The Ypres Salient at Night - 1918
A 1917 exhibit of works dealing with Ypres led to his posting as a war artist, according to the Tate link above.  This painting was done later.

Wounded at Passchendaele
Showing why Nash seldom featured people in his paintings.

The Menin Road - 1919
This and the Ypres Salient painting above are probably his best-known Great War paintings.

The Shore - 1923
A nice, bold composition, which accounts for the tilted horizon line, I suppose.

Event on the Downs - 1934
An early Surrealist work.

Landscape from a Dream - 1936-38
Much Surrealism supposedly dealt with dreams, something I find hard to believe.

Messerschmidt [sic] in Windsor Great Park - 1940
Nash wasn't any better with airplanes than he was with people.

Battle of Britain - 1941
Perhaps his best-known Second War painting.

Totes Meer (Dead Sea) - 1940-41

Defence of Albion - 1942
This painting is dreadful.  Perhaps Nash's frail health was overtaking his abilities.

Luke Fildes: Painter of Poverty and Royalty

Sir Samuel Luke Fildes (1843-1927) began his career as an illustrator, then moved into painting. He also moved from depicting poor or common folk to making portraits of members of the royal family. Plus, he seemed to enjoy painting portraits of pretty young women. If he did any landscapes or still lifes, they were a small part of the output of his career.

Filde's Wikipedia entry is here. He had one son who died in childhood, that event serving as the basis for one of his best-known paintings, "The Doctor". Fildes lived a long life, as did two other sons, Luke and Sir Paul.

Given that his art training took place before French Impressionism was revealed to the world, Fildes' style remained traditional, though some of his informal works done after 1900 feature more casual brushwork than what he used when depicting royalty.

Gallery

Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward - 1874

A Venetian Flower Girl - 1877

Venetians - 1885

An Alfresco Toilette - 1889

Fanny, Lady Fildes - 1887

Portrait of Venetia - c.1900

Edward VII - 1905

Carina - 1910

George V - after 1910

Self Portrait - 1911

Naomi - 1914

Adoration - no date

Some Collier's Magazine Cover Artists

Collier's magazine in its original form ceased publication in 1957 (a revival was briefly attempted a few years ago). But for much of its existence it was a major American general-interest publication, being second only to the Saturday Evening Post.

As such, it's covers featured many of America's leading illustrators, though not the Post's star Norman Rockwell. Below is a sampling of Collier's covers I assembled, each by a different established illustrator.

Gallery

J.C. Leyendecker
The United States' "Great White Fleet" was on its around-the-world cruise in 1907 where Japan was to be one of its stopping points, hence the Japanese naval ensign as backdrop.  Hostility was building between the countries, but the fleet's reception in Japan was cordial.  A curiosity is the 7 December issue date, given that Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy exactly 34 years later.

Henry Reuterdahl
Reuterdahl is noted for his portrayal of ships.  Here he depicts sailors, presumably on their return from the world cruise.

Maxfield Parrish

Sarah Stilwell Weber

Herbert Paus

C.C. Beall

Ronald McLeod
In the late spring of 1939, King George VI of Britain and Queen Elizabeth toured the United States and Canada.

Jon Whitcomb

Martha Sawyers

Chesley Bonestell
Collier's published a multi-issue study of space travel in the early 1950s.

Sarah Stilwell Weber: More Than Kiddie Covers

Sarah Stilwell Weber (1878-1939) or (1863-1935), both sets of dates are in various places on the Internet, was a successful illustrator during the first two decades of the 20th century. Her illustrations graced the covers and interiors of several leading magazines as well as books and advertisements.

Unfortunately, I can find little in the way of information about her on the Internet, though two sites dealing with her are here and here.

What little detail follows is gleaned from Walt Reed's "The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000." Reed and other sources I'm inclined to trust have 1878-1939 as her dates. She studied under Howard Pyle both at Drexel and in summer sessions at Chadd's Ford. Reed also notes her book illustration work and some advertising clients.

That being that, all I can do is present some examples of her work.

Gallery

Harper's magazine interior page - February 1903
Stilwell was hitting the big-time around age 25.

Collier's - August 1907

Collier's cover art - 17 March 1906
One of Stilwell's best-known works.

Saturday Evening Post cover - 19 January 1916
It seems she borrowed the general idea ten years later for Collier's rival, the Post.

Saturday Evening Post cover - 29 January 1910

Saturday Evening Post cover - 20 August 1910
Many of her covers used children as subjects.

Vogue cover - 15 October 1912
More leopard, this time skinned, and for Vogue.

Vogue cover - 15 June 1913
This seems to be unsigned, but Internet sites credit her with the illustration.

Collier's cover - 9 May 1914
A really fine illustration here.

Saturday Evening Post cover - 3 March 1917
The Russian-type costume was ill-timed, because the February Revolution (March 8-12, new calendar) occurred just after this issue was off the news stands, and Russia became more chaotic than it usually was in those years.

Towards the End: Juan Gris

Juan Gris (1887-1927) died young, not long after his 40th birthday. I wrote a "In the Beginning" post about him, but found too few images to illustrate it properly.

Biographical information on Gris -- born José Victoriano (Carmelo Carlos) González-Pérez -- is here.

It seems that Gris never quite abandoned Cubism once he was converted to that branch of modernist painting. The images below that concentrate on the last year or two of his life are mostly in the so-called Synthetic Cubism vein, though there are dashes of other influences such as the "return to order," a post- Great War introduction of classical themes by modernist painters such as Picasso.

Gallery

Portrait of Pablo Picasso - 1912
An example of Gris' early cubist art. Gris had some technical education and preferred a tidier form of Cubism than Picasso himself used. Gris would establish a geometry-based structure for many of his works. In this painting, note the parallel lines flanking the buttons on Picasso's garment. At right-angles to these are some background lines in the upper-right part of the painting. Also note the vertical and horizontal motifs in that area.

Harlequin with Guitar - 1919
Painted towards the end of Synthetic Cubism's stylistic run. Gris included guitars in many of his paintings.

Bananas - 1926

The Painter's Window - 1925

Guitar and Sheet Music - 1926-27
Three late paintings featuring a guitar along with various objects defined by straight lines.

The Goblet - 1927

Bunch of Grapes and Fish - 1927
I found this in the Athenaeum site in its Juan Gris grouping. It has plenty of geometric character, but doesn't look like other Gris paintings. Is it truly a Gris?

The Reader - 1926
A human subject with a cubist touch in terms of the shading pattern on her face. Plenty of Gris-type geometrized (is that a real word? ...well, you ought to get its meaning) background material.

Woman with Basket - 1927
A women painted the next year, but entirely different in spirit. She looks classical like other modernists had been painting in the early 1920s. Comparatively few straight lines here, mostly found on the basket and in its vicinity.