Paul Nash – St Pancras, London, 1932
Paul Nash lived in Flat 176, Queen Alexandra Mansions between 1914 and 1936. It belonged to Margaret Odeh before then, he married her and moved in. I would guess he moved out in 1936 because his view of St Pancras Hotel was gone due to the construction of St Pancras Town Hall, later known as Camden Town Hall on Euston Road, designed by A. J. Thomas. In the photographs below you can see Margret and Paul’s view disappearing with the scaffolding and construction.
Paul Nash – St Pancras, London, 1932
Paul Nash – St Pancras, London, 1932
The Nash’s lived on the 5th floor and this is the view from their window looking out. It is level with the top of the council offices.
And below is the site as it looks today but would have also looked in 1936 when complete.
Andrew Cusack – St Pancras and Camden Town Hall, 2017
Below are the happier times for the Nash’s when they had a view and Paul was able to paint from his window various flower paintings using the same jug.
Paul Nash – St Pancras Lilies, 1927
Paul Nash – St Pancras, London, 1927
I show below the process of buildings that faced the midlands hotel. First is Titford and Co – Funeral Furniture, Coffin Makers and undertakers – 131 Judd Street.
St Pancras Railway Station, April 1899
Here you see the buildings and gardens gone and the plot of land with signage that Nash would translate in his Nortern Adventure Picture.
St Pancras, London, 1925
Rather like Eric Ravilious at this time, Paul Nash became inspired by the Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico. He translated the signage of construction seen above by the fence into the image below.
Paul Nash, Northern Adventure, 1929.
The painting below is more in Nash style, less abstract but it uses most of the hotel’s arched doors and windows, a favourite motif of de Chirico. The billboards have signage on them so I suppose this is the later image. The name ‘Nostalgic Landscape’ likely noting the view, now lost.
Paul Nash – Nostalgic Landscape, St. Pancras Station, 1929
The image below Dead Spring is said to be a reaction against the artist’s father dying.
February 1929 Nash’s father died. Margaret Nash told Bertram that ‘nothing in their whole married life so profoundly affected her husband as his father’s death’ †
I don’t know I know if I buy into that idea that the painting conveys this. I think it is likely a protest putting the building site and his newly found style to good use. It is also said that the plant is dead, but the plant isn’t dead as it is in flower. I think it’s the landscape that is now dead, not the plant. The geometrical tools and rulers, the type a builder would use, and the features that make me think the outside is the dead world, while poking fun at the technique of de Chirico. They appear in the photo at the bottom of this post.
Paul Nash – Dead Spring, 1929
Paul Nash – St Pancras, London, 1932
Helen Muspratt – Paul Nash, 1932
† Paul Nash, paintings and watercolours, p23, 1975