The Friday Club
Poster
ca. 1920 (made)
ca. 1920 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
This poster is one of at least two designed by Paul Nash (1889-1946) to advertise exhibitions of the Friday Club. It is undated, but the image is a version of Nash’s characteristic view of the coast at Dymchurch, in Kent. We know that Nash first visited Dymchurch in 1920 (his earliest images of the place are the woodcuts Promenade No.1 and No.2, both dated 1920). In 1921 he went to live there and stayed for four years. On the basis of this, and other evidence from exhibition catalogues and so on, it seems likely that this poster dates from 1920. Nash was a member of the Friday Club (established by Vanessa Bell in 1905) from 1913 until 1922 (when it was disbanded).
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | The Friday Club (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | Lithograph on paper |
Brief description | 'The Friday Club', exhibition poster by Paul Nash, lithograph,, ca. 1920 |
Physical description | Portrait format poster printed in black on cream, lettered at the top with dates and 'The Friday Club' and below with exhibition details. The image in the centre is an abstracted view of the coast at Dymchurch. |
Dimensions |
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Marks and inscriptions |
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Credit line | Purchased through the Julie and Robert Breckman Print Fund |
Object history | This poster is extremely rare; it is not mentioned in Alexander Postan, The Complete Graphic Works of Paul Nash (London, 1973). It is undated, but the image is a version of Nash's characteristic view of the coast at Dymchurch, in Kent. We know that Nash first visited Dymchurch in 1920 (his earliest images of the place are the woodcuts Promenade No.1 and No.2, both dated 1920. Nash went to live in Dymchurch in 1921 and stayed for four years. He was a member of the Friday Club (established by Vanessa Bell in 1905) from 1913 until 1922 (when it was disbanded) and produced at least one other poster for a Friday Club exhibition, held at the Mansard Gallery at Heal's in Tottenham Court Road, which is dated 1921 (a copy is in the V&A collection, E.238-1980, given by Heal & Son Ltd.). The history of the Friday Club is shadowy because no minutes of its meetings exist and not all of its exhibition catalogues have been traced. There is evidence (in the form of catalogues and/or posters) for Friday Club exhibitions in 1905, 1907, 1908, 1910-1918, 1921 and 1922 (according to the list compiled by Richard Shone*) so it would seem plausible, on the basis of this gap in the record - 1919 and 1920 - and the evidence linking Nash to Dymchurch, to surmise that the most likely date for the poster must be 1920, since the dates of the exhibitions in 1921 and 1922 do not match with the dates in this poster, and nor do the venues. * Richard Shone, “The Friday Club” in The Burlington Magazine, vol.117, no.866 (May, 1975), pp.278-284. |
Subjects depicted | |
Place depicted | |
Summary | This poster is one of at least two designed by Paul Nash (1889-1946) to advertise exhibitions of the Friday Club. It is undated, but the image is a version of Nash’s characteristic view of the coast at Dymchurch, in Kent. We know that Nash first visited Dymchurch in 1920 (his earliest images of the place are the woodcuts Promenade No.1 and No.2, both dated 1920). In 1921 he went to live there and stayed for four years. On the basis of this, and other evidence from exhibition catalogues and so on, it seems likely that this poster dates from 1920. Nash was a member of the Friday Club (established by Vanessa Bell in 1905) from 1913 until 1922 (when it was disbanded). |
Collection | |
Accession number | E.3015-2007 |
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Record created | October 22, 2007 |
Record URL |
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