Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Collection
<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>
Pillar and Moon
Presented by the Art Fund 1942
anxiety
architecture
astronomy
avenue
balance
cloud
column
desolation
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
features
field
formal qualities
landscape
memory
moon
mystery
night
times of the day
townscapes / man-made features
universal concepts
wall
weather
wooded
<p>Paul Nash was deeply affected by his experiences as a soldier and an artist during the First World War. This picture was based around ‘the mystical association of two objects which inhabit different elements and have no apparent relationin life... The pale stone sphere on top of a ruined pillar faces its counterpart the moon, cold and pale and solid as stone.’Though not explicitly about mourning, the deep, unpopulated space and ghostly lighting gives the scene a melancholy air. Rather than depict a real landscape, Nash said that his intention had been ‘to call up memories and stir emotions in the spectator’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2007</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
6 August 2001 – 30 March 2003
2003-03-30
6 August 2001 – 30 March 2003
2003-03-30
2001-08-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-08-06
War and Memory
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
30 August 2004 – 13 August 2007
2007-08-13
30 August 2004
2004-08-30
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2004-08-30
On England
Collection based display
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
30 August 2011 – 19 April 2012
2012-04-19
30 August 2011 – 19 April 2012
2012-04-19
2011-08-30
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2011-08-30
Neo-Romantics
Collection based display
4 March 2014 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
4 March 2014 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
2014-03-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-03-04
Ruin Lust
Exhibition
14 October 2014 – 10 May 2015
2015-05-10
14 October 2014 – 10 May 2015
2015-05-10
2014-10-14
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2014-10-14
The Modern Lens: International Photography and the Tate Collection
Exhibition
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
12 August 2019 – 17 March 2020
2020-03-17
12 August 2019
2019-08-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2019-08-12
Blake Followers
Collection based display
Pillar and Moon
support: 508 × 762 mm
frame: 698 × 954 × 84 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1942
<p>Paul Nash was deeply affected by his experiences as a soldier and an artist during the First World War. This picture was based around ‘the mystical association of two objects which inhabit different elements and have no apparent relationin life... The pale stone sphere on top of a ruined pillar faces its counterpart the moon, cold and pale and solid as stone.’Though not explicitly about mourning, the deep, unpopulated space and ghostly lighting gives the scene a melancholy air. Rather than depict a real landscape, Nash said that his intention had been ‘to call up memories and stir emotions in the spectator’.</p>

Display caption
2007-07-10T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05392</b> PILLAR AND MOON 1932–42
<br/>
<br/>Inscr. ‘Paul Nash’ b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 20×30 (51×76).
<br/>Presented by the National Art-Collections Fund 1942.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by the N.A.C.F. from the artist through Arthur Tooth &amp; Sons for presentation to the Tate Gallery.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Tate Gallery, March–May 1948 (52).
<br/><i>Lit:</i>
E. H. Ramsden, ‘Paul Nash as Landscape Painter’ in Eates, 1948, p.30; Bertram, 1955, pp.298–9; Digby, 1955, pp.180–1, repr. pl.53; Rothenstein, 1961, at pl.8, repr. (in colour).
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Read, 1944, pl.32; John Russell, <i>From Sickert to 1948</i>, 1948, p.71; John Rothenstein, <i>The Tate Gallery</i>, 1958, p.107 (in colour).</p>
<p>This picture, begun in 1932 and completed ten years later, is the first of a series of <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/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> based on ‘the mystical association of two objects which inhabit different elements and have no apparent relation in life.... The pale stone sphere on top of a ruined pillar faces its counterpart the moon, cold and pale and solid as stone. No legend or history attaches to such a picture; its drama is inherent in the scene. Its appeal is purely evocatory. That is to say, its power, if power it has, is to call up memories and stir emotions in the spectator, rather than to impose a particular idea upon him. Even so the animation of such a picture lies in its ruling design. Not only does this dictate the nature of the drama, it also expresses by its forms and colours the nature of its mystery’ (the artist, reprinted in Bertram, <i>loc. cit.</i>). The series developed largely on the subject of the Sunflower and the Sun, e.g. the painting of that title of 1942 in Sydney (repr. in colour, Read, 1944, pl.31) and the sequence of four paintings left unfinished at the artist's death (one in the British Council collection and one at Ottawa; repr. in colour, Eates, 1948, pls. 114 and 115). A <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> version of 1942 belongs to Dudley Tooth (6 1/2×9 1/2 in.; inscr. ‘Souvenir for Dudley’ and signed with the artist's monogram); it has been squared as for enlargement.</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
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
anxiety architecture astronomy avenue balance cloud column desolation emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas features field formal qualities landscape memory moon mystery night times of the day townscapes / man-made features universal concepts wall weather wooded