A painting of an Iden farm by Paul Nash, the Rye artist celebrated with a plaque on East Street, is up for auction this week.
Study in Pale Tones, the Pond at Oxenbridge has an estimate of £8000-12,000 and is part of a sale of modern and contemporary art at Dreweatts.
The painting is one of the earliest depictions of Oxenbridge farmhouse in Iden. The artist (a former war artist) and his wife Margaret moved to nearby Dymchurch in 1921, the same year as this drawing. Nash’s mental health was severely impacted by his wartime experience and this was a period characterised by inner turmoil and subsequent recuperation.
Oxenbridge Farm in Iden was owned by close friends of the Nashes, Bertram and Kitty Buchanan. Bertram had also served as a war artist and they were frequent visitors to the farm which became a recurrent subject of many of Nash’s 1920s works , including Fig. 1, Oxenbridge Pond, 1927-28 (Birmingham City Museums & Art Gallery). From Dymchurch, the Nashes moved to Oxenbridge Cottage in 1925, staying there until they left for Rye in 1930.
Study in Pale Tones, the Pond at Oxenbridge is a break from the desolation of Nash’s wartime works and a move towards the romantic depictions of the English landscape that characterised his work between in the decade that followed.
Image Credits: Dreweatts .