Bynie, Edward Goodall, Robert Wallis, William R. Smith, George Cooke, and others, for his 'Picturesque Views of the City of Paris and its Environs,' published between 1820 and 1823. In 1821 he exhibited his drawings of Tewkesbury Abbey, also made for the 'Vetusta Monumenta.'
He was again in Paris in 1824 to make a series of drawings of its environs for M. J. F. d'Ostervald, and in 1825 he returned thither with Sir Thomas Lawrence, whom he assisted by painting the accessories in a portrait group of Louis XVIII and the French royal family. He had previously painted in oil, and among the works which he contributed to the British Institution between 1812 and 1852 was a picture representing 'The Enthronation of King George the Fourth,' exhibited in 1824, and engraved in mezzotint by Charles Turner. In 1824 he exhibited at the Society of Painters in Water-Colours a very large drawing of the 'Interior of Westminster Abbey,' this time with a royal procession, and in 1825 a 'View of Calais Harbour'. A view of 'Paris from Pere-La-Chaise,' engraved by Edward Finden, appeared in the 'Literary Souvenir' for 1825. In 1828 he sent six drawings of Durham Cathedral, and in 1829 seven drawings of the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey, York; the latter he drew on stone for the 'Vetusta Monumenta.' In 1830 he was sketching in Normandy, and he exhibited some views in the Netherlands, of which 'The Packet Boat entering the Harbour of Ghent' was engraved by Edward Goodall for the 'Literary Souvenir' of 1831.
Nash retired to Brighton in 1834, but continued to send drawings to the Royal Academy until 1847, and to the Society of Painters in Water-Colours until 1856, his contributions to the latter exhibition numbering in all nearly five hundred. The subjects of Nash's later works were generally drawn from the locality in which he lived and the adjacent parts of Sussex. While painting a view of Arundel, in 1837, he had a narrow escape from being killed by the fall of a stack of chimneys through the roof of the room in which he was at work. In 1837 he made a tour on the Moselle, and in 1843 visited the Rhine. His usual practice was to make and colour on the spot three drawings of the subject which he had in hand, one representing the effects of early morning, another that of midday, and a third that of evening. His later style, which commenced with his Paris views, although lighter in touch and brighter in colour, did not equal that of his earlier drawings, whose grandeur of effect led Turner to pronounce Nash to be the finest architectural painter of his day.
Nash died at 4 Montpellier Road, Brighton, from an attack of bronchitis, on 5 Dec. 1856, and was buried there in the extra-mural cemetery. The contents of his studio, including the palette of Sir Thomas Lawrence, were subsequently sold at Brighton. The South Kensington Museum possesses four examples of his art: 'The Waterworks at Versailles,' 'Tinterm Abbey', 'Distant View of London from Holloway,' and a 'View of the Mansion House and the Poultry, looking down Cheapside.'
[Art Journal, notice by J. J. Jenkins, 18-57, p. 61; Redgrave's Dict, of Artists of the English School, 1878; Roget's History of the Old Water-Colour Society, 1891; Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogues, 1800–47; Exhibition Catalogues of the Society of Painters in Water Colours, 1810–1856; British Institution Exhibition Catalogues (Living Artists), 1812–1852.]
NASH, JOHN (1752–1835), architect, of Welsh extraction, was born in 1752, at Cardigan in Wales, or, according to another account, in London. He was placed by his parents as pupil to Sir Robert Taylor [q. v.], but on leaving him he discontinued the profession of an architect, and retired to a property near Carmarthen. About 1793 he was induced by his former fellow-pupil, Samuel Pepys Cockerell [q. v.], and others, to resume practice as an architect. He soon obtained a large local practice in public and private architecture, extending rapidly throughout the country. Among his early works were the county gaol, Cardigan (1793), the county gaol, Hereford (1797), the west front and chapter-house of the cathedral at St. David's (1798), and various private commissions, such as Sundridge in Kent, Luscombe in Devonshire, Killymore Castle in county Tyrone, Childwall Hall, Lancashire, and alterations or additions to Corsham House in Wiltshire, Bulstrode in Buckinghamshire, Hale Hall in Lancashire, etc.
In 1814, at the celebration of the peace by fireworks and other entertainments in St. James's Park, Nash designed the temporary bridge over the lake (which remained for some years after), and also the Temple of Concordia in the Green Park. Nash had by this time obtained as an architect a large share of the patronage of royalty, the nobility and gentry, and public bodies, and became the favourite architect of the prince regent. He designed or remodelled numbers of mansions, bridges, market-places, &c. It is, however, with his share in London architectural improvements that his name
