Oil paint on canvas
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/paul-nash-1690" aria-label="More by Paul Nash" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Paul Nash</a>
Totes Meer Dead Sea
Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
air crash
aircraft, military
animals: birds
architecture
astronomy
beach
Britain, Battle, Summer 1940
emotions, concepts and ideas
England
England, South East
England, Southern
field
German
government and politics
hill
history
industrial
landscape
menace
military: World War II
moon
mystery
nationality
natural phenomena
night
owl
Oxford, Cowley
Oxfordshire
patriotism
places
scrapyard
seascapes and coasts
shadow
silence
society
times of the day
transformation
transport: air
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
universal concepts
wave
<p>Paul Nash painted this during the Second World War. It was inspired by a wrecked Luftwaffe aircraft dump at Cowley in Oxfordshire. He described the sight: ‘The thing looked to me suddenly like a great inundating sea... the breakers rearing up and crashing on the plain… nothing moves, it is not water or even ice, it is something static and dead.’ Nash, a British artist, chose to title the work in German.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
15 October 2001 – 7 July 2002
2002-07-07
15 October 2001 – 7 July 2002
2002-07-07
2001-10-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-10-15
William Blake and His Followers
Collection based display
23 July 2003 – 19 October 2003
2003-10-19
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2003-07-23
Paul Nash: Modern Artist, Ancient Landscape
Exhibition
15 June 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
15 June 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
2005-06-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-06-15
A Picture of Britain
Exhibition
23 December 2006 – 2 March 2008
2008-03-02
23 December 2006 – 2 March 2008
2008-03-02
2006-12-23
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-12-23
Devastation
Collection based display
1 June 2007 – 30 September 2007
2007-09-30
1 June 2007 – 30 September 2007
2007-09-30
2007-06-01
Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg, Germany)
http://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de
2007-06-01
Sea-Pieces II - Max Beckmann to Gerhard Richter
Loan-out
24 October 2009 – 10 January 2010
2010-01-10
24 October 2009 – 10 January 2010
2010-01-10
2009-10-24
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (Norwich, UK)
http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk
2009-10-24
GBAD; Taster One
Loan-out
1 February 2010 – 31 May 2010
2010-05-31
1 February 2010 – 31 May 2010
2010-05-31
2010-02-01
Dulwich Picture Gallery (London, UK)
2010-02-01
Paul Nash: The Elements
Loan-out
22 July 2010 – 14 March 2011
2011-03-14
6 August 2010 – 14 March 2011
2011-03-14
2010-08-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-07-22
Neo-Romantics
Collection based display
28 March 2012 – 14 October 2012
2012-10-14
28 March 2012 – 14 October 2012
2012-10-14
2012-03-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-03-28
Patrick Keiller
Collection based display
13 May 2013 – 7 April 2019
2019-04-07
13 May 2013 – 7 April 2019
2019-04-07
2013-05-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-05-13
Gallery 31
Collection based display
28 May 2014 – 6 October 2014
2014-10-06
28 May 2014 – 6 October 2014
2014-10-06
2014-05-28
Musée du Louvre-Lens (Lens, France)
2014-05-28
Les désastres de la guerre 1800-2014
Loan-out
10 February 2015 – 4 May 2015
2015-05-04
10 February 2015 – 4 May 2015
2015-05-04
2015-02-10
Southbank Centre (London, UK)
http://www.southbankcentre.org.uk
2015-02-10
Concerning Britain
Loan-out
24 October 2016 – 31 January 2018
2018-01-31
24 October 2016 – 5 March 2017
2017-03-05
2016-10-24
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
7 April 2017 – 20 August 2017
2017-08-20
2017-04-07
Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts (Norwich, UK)
9 September 2017 – 31 January 2018
2018-01-31
2017-09-09
Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
2016-10-24
Paul Nash
Loan-out
26 October 2016 – 14 January 2018
2018-01-14
26 October 2016 – 5 March 2017
2017-03-05
2016-10-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
7 April 2017 – 20 August 2017
2017-08-20
2017-04-07
Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts (Norwich, UK)
9 September 2017 – 14 January 2018
2018-01-14
2017-09-09
Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
2016-10-26
Paul Nash
Exhibition
10 June 2018 – 1 October 2018
2018-10-01
10 June 2018 – 1 October 2018
2018-10-01
2018-06-10
Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen (Siegen, Germany)
2018-06-10
Remembering Landscapes
Loan-out
20 October 2018 – 6 January 2019
2019-01-06
20 October 2018 – 6 January 2019
2019-01-06
2018-10-20
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2018-10-20
Nashashibi/Skaer: Thinking through other artists
Exhibition
22 April 2019 – 30 October 2022
2022-10-30
29 April 2019 – 30 October 2022
2022-10-30
2019-04-29
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2019-04-22
G31 Refresh
Collection based display
19 December 2022
6 December 2021
2021-12-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-12-19
Gallery 33
Collection based display
15 February 2024 – 15 February 2026
2026-02-15
12 June 2025 – 12 October 2025
2025-10-12
2025-06-12
Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg, Germany)
http://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de
2024-02-15
Surréalisme
Loan-out
Totes Meer (Dead Sea)
support: 1020 × 1524 mm
frame: 1170 × 1680 × 97 mm
Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
<div class="text">
<p>Paul Nash painted this during the Second World War. It was inspired by a wrecked Luftwaffe aircraft dump at Cowley in Oxfordshire. He described the sight: ‘The thing looked to me suddenly like a great inundating sea... the breakers rearing up and crashing on the plain… nothing moves, it is not water or even ice, it is something static and dead.’ Nash, a British artist, chose to title the work in German. </p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-09-26T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05717</b> TOTES MEER (DEAD SEA) 1940–1</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘Paul Nash’ b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 40×60 (101·5×152·5).
<br/>Presented by the War Artists' Advisory Committee 1946.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> <i>National War Pictures</i>, National Gallery, 1941–2; Leeds, April–June 1943 (23); Tate Gallery, March–May 1948 (54, repr. pl.14).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> K. Clark, ‘War Artists at the National Gallery’ in <i>Studio</i>, CXXIII, 1942, p.4, repr. p.12; Michael Rothenstein, <i>Looking at Paintings</i>, 1947, p.14, repr. p.15 (in colour); Eates, 1948, p.79, repr. pl.101; John Rothenstein, ‘Paul Nash as War Artist’ in Eates, 1948, p.21; Bertram, 1955, pp.172–3; Digby, 1955, pp.128–30, repr. pl.42; Rothenstein, 1961, at pl.11, repr. (in colour).
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Read, 1944, pl.27 (in colour); Eric Newton, <i>War through Artists' Eyes</i>, 1945, p.72 (in colour).</p>
<p>Painted 1940–1 on the basis of sketches (‘for colour’ - letter of 11 March 1941, see below) and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photographs</span></a> (‘for detail’) of a dump of wrecked aircraft seen at Cowley in August 1940. ‘There lived here in death innumerable vehicles of destruction of different personality once all directed by human agency, some in the character of ships manned by crews, others as clearly bound up with man as a horse to its rider.... There was a persistent suggestion of a ghostly presence.... I do not mean the wraiths of lost pilots or perished crews were hovering near, it was nothing so decidedly human, but a pervasive force baffled yet malign hung in the heavy air’ (the artist, reprinted in Bertram, <i>loc. cit.</i>).</p>
<p>Writing to Sir Kenneth Clark (letter of 11 March 1941 in Imperial War Museum files, partly reprinted in Bertram, <i>loc. cit.</i>) the artist described how, ‘The thing looked to me suddenly like a great inundating sea. You might feel - under certain influences - a moonlight night for instance - this is a vast tide moving across the fields, the breakers rearing up and crashing on the plain. And then, no: nothing moves, it is not water or even ice, it is something static and dead.... By moonlight, this waning moon, one could swear they began to move and twist and turn as they did in the air. A sort of rigor mortis? No, they are quite dead and still. The only moving creature is the white owl flying low over the bodies of the other predatory creatures, raking the shadows for rats and voles. She isn't there, of course, as a symbol quite so much as the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/form" title="Glossary definition for 'Form'"><span>form</span></a> and colour essential just <i>there</i> to link up with the cloud fringe overhead.’</p>
<p>For the artist's idea of the personality of aircraft, see Paul Nash, ‘The Personality of Planes’ in <i>Vogue</i>, March 1942, reprinted in <i>Outline</i>, 1949.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-08T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
aircraft, military air crash animals: birds architecture astronomy beach Britain, Battle, Summer 1940 emotions, concepts and ideas England England, South East England, Southern field German government and politics hill history industrial landscape menace military: World War II moon mystery nationality natural phenomena night owl Oxford, Cowley Oxfordshire patriotism places scrapyard seascapes and coasts shadow silence society times of the day transformation transport: air UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions universal concepts wave