Paul Nash

Behind the Inn

1919–22

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

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Not on display

Artist: Paul Nash 1889–1946
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 635 x 762 mm
frame: 752 x 883 x 76 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Daily Express 1927
Reference: N04259

Display caption

In the 1920s Paul Nash became emotionally attached to significant places which inspired sequences of works. He often visited the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, painting the woods and chalk downs which characterise the area. His brother John lived in Whiteleaf and Behind the Inn shows the view from the Red Lion pub in the village where Paul stayed on his visits. In the early 1920s Nash’s interest was purely in the landscape of the Chilterns, although he later became intrigued by the traces of human history on the land at sites like Whiteleaf Cross and Ivinghoe Beacon.

Gallery label, March 2018

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Catalogue entry

N04259 BEHIND THE INN 1919–22

Inscr. ‘Paul Nash 1922’ b.r.
Canvas, 25×30 (63·5×76).
Presented by the Daily Express 1927.
Exh: N.E.A.C., January 1923 (17); ‘Daily Express’ Young Artists Exhibition, R.B.A. Galleries, June 1927 (196).
Repr: L'Amour de l'Art, XV, 1934, p.461; Tate Gallery Illustrations, British School, 1938, p.105.

Although the painting is dated 1922 the photograph in the collection made by the artist's wife and now in the V. & A. Library bears the date 1919–22. This work, one of a number painted during this period of scenes in and around Whiteleaf, near Princes Risborough, shows the view from the Red Lion.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II