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4 In 1918 the propaganda wing of the war government commissioned a series of publications to present an honest picture of the war to the British public. Titled British Artists at the Front, each would focus on the work of one of Britain's most important artists. Only four were published, printed at great expense with reproductions in colour. Volume 1 was dedicated to CRW Nevinson and volume 3 to Paul Nash. Coincidentally both artists were born in 1889 and died in 1946 at the age of 57, their lives most probably cut short as a result of their experiences during the Great War. Historian Pierre Purseigle, in 'Warfare and Belligerence', argues that there is a hierarchy of sacrifice amongst different soldiering types, ranks and theatres of the First World War. 1 This hierarchical framework can also be applied to artists depicting the First World War and how they were judged by their experience of the frontline. Those who suffered the most hardship, put themselves in harm's way most often, who had seen and experienced the war first-hand, became the darlings of the art world. Those with more experience of the front line received preferential treatment from commercial galleries and better commissions from public funding bodies. 2 In this regard, the war did much to upset the status quo within the London art world, leaving behind the Edwardian society elite and throwing young hitherto unrecognised artists into the spotlight. Foremost among these were Nash and Nevinson. Before the war, both artists studied at the Slade School in the same year and whilst they were under the same tutelage, their styles were significantly impacted by their home environments. Nash's family moved from London to the commuter belt village of Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire in 1902 when he was 13. His mother was mentally ill and it was hoped that the fresh air and countryside would improve her condition. Unfortunately, her state continued to worsen, and she died in a private hospital in 1910 when Nash was 20. Nash found solace in the countryside, and inspired by William Blake, Samuel Palmer and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his early work was highly symbolic and pre-occupied with 'visions of romantic death'. 3 Nature as a symbol of humanity enthralled him and dominated as a subject throughout his career. "I have tried to paint as tho' they were human beings … because I sincerely love & worship trees & know that they are people & wonderfully beautiful people." 4 Nash was also a poet, and symbols of nature would become the language through which he would communicate. He saw trees as otherworldly, connected to the underworld with their roots below the ground, and to the heavens, their branches extending skywards. On first reaching the front, he was in awe of the war-torn landscape. On 6 th April 1917, he wrote in a letter home to his wife Margaret: "Oh, these wonderful trenches at night, at dawn, at sundown! Shall I ever lose the picture they have in my mind. Imagine a wide flat landscape flat and scantily wooded and what trees remain blasted and torn, naked and scarred and riddled. The ground for miles around furrowed into trenches, pitted into yawning holes in which the water lies still and cold or heaped with mounds of earth, tangles of rusty wire, tin plates, stakes, sandbags. 1 Purseigle, Pierre. ed. (2005). Warfare and Belligerence: Perspectives in First World War Studies. Leiden: Brill. 2 Some influential figures in the art world, particularly Roger Fry, did not approve of artists painting propaganda. Fry would make life difficult for both Nash and Nevinson after 1918. 3 Gough, Paul. Dead Ground – War and Peace: Remembrance and Recovery, A Cultural Reading of Memory scapes from the Great War, 1914-1918. Bristol: Sansom & Co, 2018, p.52. 4 Gough, Paul. Dead Ground, p.52. NASH & NEVINSON: IMPRESSIONS OF WAR AND PEACE by Amy Tibble "A place with an evil name, pitted and pocked with shells, the trees torn to shreds, often reeking with poison gas" Paul Nash, 1917