The Walnut Tree
Summary
A Cumberland landscape with a view of rolling hills beyond a stone wall. The lower part of a tree trunk, with a side branch on the right, can be seen behind the wall to centre right. There is a gate to the right of the tree. This watercolour sketch is described by Roger Cardinal in 'The Landscape Vision of Paul Nash' as "The tree rises behind a garden wall whose carefully constructed wooden gate is shut; a small section of wall encloses a shrub on the far side. A box covered in tarpaulin is set at the bottom edge of the image to the right. The walnut tree to which the title directs the eye and the free hills behond, are implicitly cordoned off, out of bounds. The image seems to speak of inhibition, a fear of unframed space. What lies in the box? Can the gate be opened? Here things are poised at a limit beyond which Nash seems not prepared to venture: or perhaps it is that the boundary, exemplified in the wall, is where he loves to linger, thrilled by the dizziness of expectancy" p.85-86
Object Name
The Walnut Tree
Creators Name
Date Created
1924
Dimensions
support: 38.1cm x 54.6cm
accession number
1925.223
Collection Group
Place of creation
Brampton
Support
paper
Medium
chalk (brown)
pencil
Catalogue Raisonne
Andrew Causey, Paul Nash, Oxford, 1980
Credit
Gift of Mr Charles Lambert Rutherston, 1925
Legal
© Manchester Art Gallery
