Don’t Forget the Diver

The title is probably a reference to the catchphrase of the popular World War II radio show ITMA. Paul Nash was an official war artist in both World Wars. In the Great War he was in active service and his experiences changed his interpretation of landscape. In 1923 he suffered a breakdown but recovered and settled at Dymchurch on the Kent coast. From 1929 onwards he produced pictures or ‘object poems’ in which, as here, land or seascapes are viewed through a foreground still-life. These compositions contain odd or familiar objects arranged to suggest other levels of meaning.