John Nash: Oppy Wood, 1917, Evening

IWM ART 2243

John Nash established his name as an artist through his depictions of his experiences on the Western Front. Like his brother Paul, he served as an infantryman in the Artists’ Rifles. Unlike Paul, however, John Nash was not formally trained as an artist and became an official war artist in 1918 only after vigorous canvassing by his brother.

Nash’s artistic output strongly focused on the experiences and minutiae of trench life, particularly front line routines such as the ritual of the dawn and dusk ‘stand to’. It is this scene that Nash depicts in Oppy Wood, the two soldiers surveying No Man’s Land for potential enemy action. The wood has been reduced to a collection of tree stumps, and the ground to a mass of shell holes scattered with snow. This destruction is juxtaposed with the beauty of the untouchable blue sky.

1918, 1834mm x 2133mm