David Boyd Haycock - A Crisis of Brilliance
© Tate Gallery
C.R.W. Nevinson
C.R.W. Nevinson (1889-1946): The troubled son of one of England’s
leading left-wing journalists and his Suffragette wife, Nevinson arrived at
the Slade in 1908. There he soon befriended Mark Gertler, and the two collaborated
in their interest in Neo-Primitivism. They later fell out over their mutual
love for Carrington. Advised by his teacher, Henry Tonks, to abandon hopes
of an artistic career, Nevinson nevertheless persevered, and became strongly
influenced by the Futurist movement.
Travelling to France with the Friends’ Ambulance Unit in 1914, he was traumatised
by his experiences of treating the wounded and dying. However, the works he painted
of the War in 1915 soon made him one of the most famous young artists in the
country. Anxious to escape front line action, he became an Official War Artist.
In 1920, a critic observed: ‘It is something, at the age of thirty one,
to be among the most discussed, most successful, most promising, most admired
and most hated British artists.’