''Totes Meer'' (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

for "Dead Sea") is a 1941 oil-on-canvas painting by Paul Nash. It depicts a moonlit

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

populated by a graveyard of crashed aircraft of the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

. The broken shards of metal from the wings and fuselages resemble a seascape of jagged ice, possibly inspired by Caspar David Friedrich's ''

The Sea of Ice ''The Sea of Ice'', (German language, German: ''Das Eismeer'') (1823–1824), is an oil painting that depicts a shipwreck in the Arctic by the German Romantic art, Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich. Before 1826 this painting was known as ''T ...

''. It measures and has been in the collection of the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

since 1946.

Background

Nash was an official war artist in the First and Second World Wars. In 1940, he was asked to work for the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

, and Nash started work on ''Totes Meer'' that year. Some representatives of the Air Ministry disliked his style of art, and his full-time position was terminated before the end of the year. ''Totes Meer'' was completed in 1941, and offered to the

War Artists' Advisory Committee The War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artist ...

in 1941. Nash was paid £150 for the painting.

Description

The work was based on sketches and photographs made at the Metal and Produce Recovery Unit at Cowley near

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in August 1940, where the remains of both German and British crashed aircraft were brought to be recycled at the

Morris Motors Morris Motors Limited was a British privately owned motor vehicle manufacturing company formed in 1919 to take over the assets of William Morris's WRM Motors Limited and continue production of the same vehicles. By 1926 its production represent ...

car factory nearby, which was being used to construct and repair aircraft. Nash wrote that, under moonlight, the sea of wreckage could be perceived to move and twist, but in reality it was of course dead, and the only movement was the flight of a

white owl White Owls are American-made, machine produced cigars. The logo consists of a snowy owl perched on a cigar. The brand is owned by Swedish Match and was formerly owned by General Cigar Company. History White Owl is a cigar that was first produc ...

, depicted near the horizon at the right. The desolate landscape harkens back to the paintings that Nash made as a war artist in the First World War, such as '' We are Making a New World'' or '' The Menin Road''. The mournful tone may also have been influenced by his personal circumstances: an affair with painter

Eileen Agar Eileen Forrester Agar (1 December 1899 – 17 November 1991) was a British-Argentinian painter and photographer associated with the Surrealist movement. Biography Agar was born in Buenos Aires, to a Scottish father and American mother. Her fat ...

was coming to an end, and Nash was suffering from a respiratory illness which ultimately caused his death. Nash initially called the work ''Iron Sea'', but he hoped that the work could be reproduced on postcards to be sent to Germany as propaganda and decided on a German title instead. Nash described his painting:

Reception

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...

, chairman of the War Artists' Advisory Committee, described ''Totes Meer'' as "the best war picture so far""Art in War: Exploring a Painting", BBC and the painting was an immediate success when it was displayed in an exhibition of National War Pictures at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

in May 1941. It was presented to the Tate Gallery in 1946 and is considered to be one of the most important British paintings of the Second World War.

Background

Description

Reception

References

External links