Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson

Christopher Wynne Nevinson was a modernist and something of an outsider. His family background was bohemian, his mother was a Suffragette and his father, Henry Nevinson, though a pacifist, was a noted war correspondent. Nevinson studied at the Slade from 1908 to 1912 and then in Paris where he shared a studio with Modigliani, met Picasso and became acquainted with Cubist techniques, which were a vital part of his own art until 1917. Whilst in Paris, he also encountered the Italian Futurist artists, Gino Severini and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. When he returned to London in 1913, he became involved with Wyndham Lewis and the Vorticists and then adopted Futurism. Although he was rejected by the Army as unfit, he immediately joined the Belgian Red Cross. During 1915-16 he produced a series of paintings based on his experience as an ambulance driver in France, using his own hybrid of Futurist and Cubist techniques. The success of the painting, La Mitrailleuse (the Machine Gun) and other war paintings led the Leicester Galleries to offer Nevinson a one-man show in the autumn of 1916 which was admired by public and critics alike. However, Nevinson’s war experience made him realise the tragedy and futility of war. By 1919 he had forsaken Futurism and opted instead to a much more tradition style although his paintings of New York City show elements of Futurism married with a more naturalistic style. In later life, his focus changed to pastoral scenes and flower pieces that reflect a more serene mood. Margarita Cappock 2014