Seaside was executed in 1934, the year Paul Nash arrived in the Victorian seaside town of Swanage. Nash lived on the Dorset seafront with his wife Margaret until 1936, discovering a surrealist resonance in the ‘extreme ugliness’ of the architecture set against sea views, and Victorian monuments that littered the shoreline. Much of the scene in the present work is occupied by a tent situated on a beach - its geometric form twisting in the breeze with a lingering strangeness, bringing to mind Giorgio de Chirico’s mysterious figures and obelisks. Characteristic of Nash’s watercolours during the 1930s, Seaside displays a soft, restrained palette. By 1937, Nash was seen by some as ‘...the most truly original watercolour artist that Britain has produced for a long while.’ (J. Godden quoted in The Observer, 16 May 1937).

We are very grateful to Andrew Lambirth for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.