Shore by Paul Nash

Glicée print from original oil on canvas. This is the shore at Dymchurch, Kent, where Nash moved with his wife in 1921. ‘The Shore’ depicts one of Nash’s ‘places’ (see Biography).

What Nash portrays here is the struggle between Man and Nature – a struggle which, in perpetuity it would seem, neither are destined to win. There is a certain sadness: the wall stretches to a point beyond the horizon, and in this expanse the viewer remains unaccompanied except (it would seem) by the sounds of the waves distantly washing the sands below. But Nash finds a poignant beauty nevertheless – there are colours within this expanse, the beach reflects the sun, and the vast, water-drenched wall seems to shimmer in the muted light.