The Clare Neilson Collection

Clare Neilson was a friend and collector of paintings and prints by Paul Nash. Clare and Charles Neilson bought Madams near Gloucester in 1937 which Nash visited a number of times and was an inspiration to him. Neilson bequeathed several paintings, books inscribed to her by Nash, together with letters and photograph albums to her godson Jeremy Greenwood who in turn gave them to Pallant House Gallery, supplemented by books and wood-engravings collected by himself and his partner Alan Swerdlow.

Clare Neilson met Paul Nash in the early 1930s, establishing a close friendship that was to last until Paul’s death in 1946. Clare and Charles rented a cottage in Smallhythe in Kent from Edith Craig in 1930 where she formed a wide circle of artist friends, which included Edward Burra and Paul Nash who lived in the neighbouring town of Rye. Clare and Paul shared a love of book collecting, and the collection includes examples of Nash’s most important illustrated books, many of which are personally inscribed to her by Nash, as well as a group of early wood engravings of the 1920s that demonstrate Nash’s significance as a printmaker.

After the Neilsons moved to Gloucestershire in 1937, Paul Nash visited their new home, Madams, several times. The garden there and a couple of fallen elm trees at a local farm were an inspiration for Nash together with an expedition he made with Clare to the Forest of Dean and the banks of the river Severn. Their friendship was recorded not only in Nash’s artworks and their extensive correspondence, but in photographs recording their picnics, excursions and even Nash’s role in designing their garden.