A Los Gázquez favourite artist and favourite painting this time. Or at least one of them. Nash was a war artist serving on the Western Front in WW1. I found this quote from a letter to his wife whilst painting during the fighting at Ypres…

“I am no longer an artist interested and curious, I am a messenger who will bring back word from the men who are fighting to those who want the war to go on for ever. Feeble, inarticulate, will be my message, but it will have a bitter truth, and may it burn their lousy souls.”

This painting ‘The Battle of Britain’, is from his stint as an official war artist in the WW2 and whilst the scene is of conflict and undoubted death there is a modernist poetry and rhythm painted in the ‘contrails’ of the aircraft.

Interestingly Nash was a member of the Artists Rifles a special forces regiment of the British Territorial Army. It was formed in 1859 as a volunteer light infantry unit, the regiment saw active service during the Boer War and WW1.  It did not serve outside Britain during WW2, as it was used as an officer training unit at that time. The regiment was disbanded in 1945. In 1947, it was re-established to resurrect the Special Air Services or SAS. Today, the full title of the Regiment is 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve). As a student I remember the memorial plaque to the Artists Rifles outside the Royal Academy. I’m not sure we would have been that brave.