Joseph Nash OWS
1809 - 1878
Joseph Nash was an English watercolour painter and lithographer, specialising in the depiction of historical buildings. His major work was the four-volume Mansions of England in the Olden Time, published from 1839–49. He studied with the artist and architect Augustus Charles Pugin, with whom he travelled to France to assist and prepare architectural drawings for a book entitled Paris and its Environs, published in 1830. In the early stage of his career, Nash was engaged on figure subjects illustrating the poets and novelists, and exhibited many drawings with the Society of Painters in Water-Colours, to which he was elected in 1834. Of these pictures, some were engraved for The Keepsake and similar publications, but he later became well known for his picturesque views of late Gothic buildings, which he peopled with figures grouped to illustrate the everyday life of their owners in earlier times. Despite being involved in a number of disputes with the Society, he continued to exhibit his artwork there until 1875. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution. Nash also learnt and used lithography in the production of a series of popular publications: Architecture of the Middle Ages appeared in 1838, and his four-volume masterpiece, Mansions of England in the Olden Time, over a ten-year period from 1839, which involved Nash in travelling all over the country drawing house interiors and exteriors. He concentrated on the architectural aspects of the buildings, bringing them to life with the inclusion of groups of people. The
Joseph Nash was an English watercolour painter and lithographer, specialising in the depiction of historical buildings. His major work was the four-volume Mansions of England in the Olden Time, published from 1839–49. He studied with the artist and architect Augustus Charles Pugin, with whom he travelled to France to assist and prepare architectural drawings for a book entitled Paris and its Environs, published in 1830. In the early stage of his career, Nash was engaged on figure subjects illustrating the poets and novelists, and exhibited many drawings with the Society of Painters in Water-Colours, to which he was elected in 1834. Of these pictures, some were engraved for The Keepsake and similar publications, but he later became well known for his picturesque views of late Gothic buildings, which he peopled with figures grouped to illustrate the everyday life of their owners in earlier times. Despite being involved in a number of disputes with the Society, he continued to exhibit his artwork there until 1875. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution. Nash also learnt and used lithography in the production of a series of popular publications: Architecture of the Middle Ages appeared in 1838, and his four-volume masterpiece, Mansions of England in the Olden Time, over a ten-year period from 1839, which involved Nash in travelling all over the country drawing house interiors and exteriors. He concentrated on the architectural aspects of the buildings, bringing them to life with the inclusion of groups of people. The
volumes were very popular, with the lithographs circulated widely by newspapers, architects and other artists, and it was claimed in Parliament that they were causing an increasing number of people to visit historical buildings.
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