Silbury Hill

Paul Nash

circa 1935

Silbury Hill by Paul Nash, circa 1935

Paul Nash’s sketch of Silbury Hill feels less like a finished masterpiece and more like a detective's notebook. Scattered across the dusty, reddish foreground are his own handwritten notes—labeling rocks as 'grey stone' and jotting down measurements—revealing how he analytically studied this ancient landscape. Silbury Hill itself is a massive prehistoric chalk mound in Wiltshire, the largest of its kind in Europe, and Nash was deeply obsessed with these mystical sites. Created around 1935, the piece captures the eerie, timeless quality of the British countryside, blending a modernist's eye for form with the raw texture of the earth.

Technique
Watercolor and pencil
Material
Paper
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