140 / 254
PAUL NASH (1889-1946)
179
●
EVERYWHERE YOU GO / YOU CAN BE SURE OF SHELL / THE RYE MARSHES.
1932.
29
3
/
4
x45 inches, 75
1
/
2
x114
1
/
4
cm. B.P. Ltd., Great Britain.
Condition B: replaced and overpainted lower left corner, into text; foxing in margins and image; minor losses
and repaired tears at edges. Mounted on brittle Japan.
Paul Nash, a renowned painter, designed numerous posters for Shell and also contributed to the Shell
County Guides which accompanied the landmark posters. “In some ways, the emergence of neo-
romanticism during the 1930s, alongside its more clearly modernist contemporaries, is evidence of
how, in Britain, contradictory ideas could be held simultaneously. Both Paul Nash and Edward Kauffer
were perfectly happy to work in both modern and romantic modes” (Modern British p. 62). Nash, in
his graphic approach, developed a “synthesis between feeling and form” (ibid). Modern British p. 63.
[1,500/2,000]
EDWARD MCKNIGHT KAUFFER (1890-1954)
180
●
TO VISIT BRITAIN’S LANDMARKS / YOU CAN BE SURE OF SHELL / DINTON
ABBEY. 1936.
29
3
/
4
x45 inches, 75
1
/
2
x114
1
/
4
cm.
Condition B+: repaired tears and creases at edges; minor abrasions and errant mark in image.
Edward McKnight Kauffer was a multi-talented artist, whose work as a graphic designer, illustrator,
painter and decorator was all exceptional. He was born in Montana, studied art in both Chicago and
Paris and then moved to London in 1915. He returned to his native America in 1940, but his 25 years
in Britain (the most creative of his career) produced a prodigious output of work including posters
that, alongside those of A.M. Cassandre, would become the best of the period. In contrast to Cassandre,
who gave up graphic design for painting, Kauffer practiced both his whole life. He exhibited gouaches
and watercolors in London in 1931 and 1933. When Jack Beddington commissioned Kauffer to design
posters for Shell, he asked the artist for both his hard-edge graphic designs as well as his scenic,
countryside ones.
Dinton Castle
is one of the most humorous and playful images Kauffer delivered for
Shell. On a large easel, Kauffer uncovers the landscape painting he has just finished. His palette, which
bears his signature, is still leaning against the work. Shell 60, Kauffer p. 132.
[700/1,000]
179