10th Jun, 2026 12:00
Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026
27
PAUL NASH (BRITISH 1889-1946)
OLD HARRY ROCKS AND THE PINNACLES OFF BALLARD DOWN, SWANAGE, DORSET
signed Paul Nash lower left
pencil and watercolour
12.5 x 20cm; 5 x 8in
33.5 x 39cm; 13 1/4 x 15 1/4in (framed)
Property from the Estate of Hans Feibusch, Hampstead
Provenance
(possibly) Sale, Christie's London, 29th November 1941 (purchased by Mr Roberts)
The Leicester Galleries, (Ernest Brown & Phillips Ltd), London
Phyllis Bray, London (Phyllis Bray, 1911-1991, had a successful career as a mural painter, assisting the German mural artist Hans Feibusch (1899-1998), a collaboration that lasted over forty years. Bray studied at the Slade,1927-1931, and was a member of the East London Group of artists in the 1930s, interested in Surrealism. She was also a book illustrator.)
Hans Feibusch, London (a gift from the above)
Thence by descent to the present owner
Executed circa 1935. Nash had noted the Surrealist potential of Swanage within days of his first visit in 1934, describing the town as 'just a Surrealist dream'. He had moved to the coastal town to relieve his asthma. His flat in The Parade on Swanage sea front looked out across to the distinctive cliffs of Old Harry Rocks, with its two chalk stack 'Pinnacles' at the foot of Ballard Down to the east of Swanage Bay. Nash immediately saw the opportunity the view represented, and was quick to incorporate it into his work.
In 1935 he was preparing for the International Surrealist Exhibition to be held in London the following year. In developing his ideas for the exhibition he revisited the theme of water flooding into a broken room in his watercolour Empty Room of 1935. Andrew Causey describes the appearance of the view from Nash's balcony in the composition: 'the furthest left-hand walls of the room are missing, leaving the room open to the sea; beyond are the Ballard Cliffs, with the Pinnacle Rock jutting out just short of the coast' (see Andrew Causey, Paul Nash, Oxford, 1980, p. 280 & no. 836, Empty Room illustrated). The dramatic prominence of the rocky coastline in Empty Room is markedly similar to that which appears in the present sketch suggesting this work may be a preparatory study for Nash's larger finished composition.
The present work may also possibly have been a preparatory sketch for an illustration in Nash's popular Dorset Shell Guide, published in 1936 (see Causey, pp. 430-431, nos. 828, 831, 832 and 843). The cover of the guide features Nash's photograph of a close up of The Pinnacles (fig. 1).
Sold for £6,500
OLD HARRY ROCKS AND THE PINNACLES OFF BALLARD DOWN, SWANAGE, DORSET
signed Paul Nash lower left
pencil and watercolour
12.5 x 20cm; 5 x 8in
33.5 x 39cm; 13 1/4 x 15 1/4in (framed)
Property from the Estate of Hans Feibusch, Hampstead
Provenance
(possibly) Sale, Christie's London, 29th November 1941 (purchased by Mr Roberts)
The Leicester Galleries, (Ernest Brown & Phillips Ltd), London
Phyllis Bray, London (Phyllis Bray, 1911-1991, had a successful career as a mural painter, assisting the German mural artist Hans Feibusch (1899-1998), a collaboration that lasted over forty years. Bray studied at the Slade,1927-1931, and was a member of the East London Group of artists in the 1930s, interested in Surrealism. She was also a book illustrator.)
Hans Feibusch, London (a gift from the above)
Thence by descent to the present owner
Executed circa 1935. Nash had noted the Surrealist potential of Swanage within days of his first visit in 1934, describing the town as 'just a Surrealist dream'. He had moved to the coastal town to relieve his asthma. His flat in The Parade on Swanage sea front looked out across to the distinctive cliffs of Old Harry Rocks, with its two chalk stack 'Pinnacles' at the foot of Ballard Down to the east of Swanage Bay. Nash immediately saw the opportunity the view represented, and was quick to incorporate it into his work.
In 1935 he was preparing for the International Surrealist Exhibition to be held in London the following year. In developing his ideas for the exhibition he revisited the theme of water flooding into a broken room in his watercolour Empty Room of 1935. Andrew Causey describes the appearance of the view from Nash's balcony in the composition: 'the furthest left-hand walls of the room are missing, leaving the room open to the sea; beyond are the Ballard Cliffs, with the Pinnacle Rock jutting out just short of the coast' (see Andrew Causey, Paul Nash, Oxford, 1980, p. 280 & no. 836, Empty Room illustrated). The dramatic prominence of the rocky coastline in Empty Room is markedly similar to that which appears in the present sketch suggesting this work may be a preparatory study for Nash's larger finished composition.
The present work may also possibly have been a preparatory sketch for an illustration in Nash's popular Dorset Shell Guide, published in 1936 (see Causey, pp. 430-431, nos. 828, 831, 832 and 843). The cover of the guide features Nash's photograph of a close up of The Pinnacles (fig. 1).
Auction: Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026, 10th Jun, 2026
L.S. Lowry’s expansive Figures on a Beach (lot 39) is the lead painting in our June sale that ranges from the Old Masters to Modern British and post-War & Contemporary. Many of the works have been in the same collection for decades; a number have fascinating stories attached.
The first seven lots of Dutch and Flemish Old Masters are from the collection of Paul Wertheimer. Acquired almost hundred years ago, Wertheimer brought the works to England when he fled Germany in 1938. Leading the group are 17th century panels attributed to Moses van Uyttenbroeck and Lucas van Uden, the latter a reduced copy of Rubens’ original in the Royal Collection (lots 1 & 4). Another early panel, a portrait of Cornelisz. Van Beresteyn, is by a follower of Michiel Jansz. van Miereveld (lot 9).
Works by fellow artists and friends Augustus John and Edgar Augustus ‘Loben’ Slade (lots 20-25) feature John’s early portrait of Loben and five works on paper by the lesser known Slade, nephew of the founder of the Slade School of Art, one of which is a watercolour of Jessie McNeill, John’s model, muse and mistress.
Also in the sale are seven works by Australian artists, including Jeffrey Smart, William Blamire Young and Leonard French, all from a private collection in Surrey (lots 30-36), and ten paintings from a Cheshire Collection that features the work of Helen Bradley, Edouard Cortes and Marcel Dyf together with bracing coastal views by Campbell Archibald Mellon (lots 40-48).
A small and fascinating work on paper is by Paul Nash. It captures the view of Harry Rocks off Ballard Down from Nash's flat in Swanage where he was living in the mid-1930s and which he incorporated into his Surrealist work ahead of the major Surrealist exhibition in London of 1936 (lot 27).
Beside the Lowry beach scene, other post-War works include an important early sculpture by James Tower (lot 52), a leading sculptor-ceramicist of his generation. Other post-War abstract works include examples by Frank Avray Wilson, James Hull and Etienne Beothy (lots 50, 51, 55 & 57).
For more information please contact us | pictures@olympiaauctions.com | +44 (0)20 7806 5541
Viewing
PUBLIC EXHIBITION:
Sunday 7th June: 12pm - 4pm
Monday 8th June: 10am - 8pm (Drinks 5 - 8pm)
Tuesday 9th June: 10am - 5pm
