Study for "Dead Spring"

This is a preparatory drawing Nash made for a still life painting called Dead Spring. The painting began in response to a query his ailing father had made prior to his death: “Do you think I shall see the Spring?” It depicts a dead potted plant sitting in the window of the artist’s London apartment. The contrast of organic and geometrical shapes is even greater in this drawing than in the painting, as Nash’s precise lines spear through the drooping leaves and wilted flowers. In its emphasis on decay, the image becomes a modern memento mori (2022).