John Nash

Over the Top 

Artist: John Nash

Media: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 78.8 x 108 cm

Date: 1918

John Nash was born in London, on April 11^th 1893. John’s father was a lawyer and his mother came from a naval family. When John was a teenager his mother developed a mental illness, she later died in the mental hospital. John grew up and became a journalist where he worked for a local newspaper. Sometime later his older brother encouraged him to become a water color painter. Without any formal schooling John became a landscape and comic artist. His art was shown in galleries alongside his brothers. John’s health initially kept him from joining the military when the First World War broke out, but after some time he was able to join the Artists’ Rifles from 1916 through 1918. In 1918 john became an official war artist. After the war John taught at Ruskin school of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford. John also became a printmaker and founded the Society of Wood Engravers. When the Second World War hit, John again became an official war artist and was promoted to rank of Captain in the Royal Marines. In 1967 the Royal Academy held a retrospective exhibition in his honor, the first time this had been done for any living artist. More Info

                The reason I chose this painting from John Nash because it looks simple but packs a punch. As the soldiers advance many are shot down left to rot in no man's land. World War one was the first war to be fought exclusively in tranches. There were elaborate trench systems dug from the Western side of Belgium and all the way through France down to Switzerland. It was said that the tranches had the stench of feces and rotten flesh. Many soldiers developed trench foot, A buildup of fungus that often lead to gangrene and foot amputation. In many places the trenches of both sides were so close together that the soldiers could hear the commotion on the enemy.