CRW Nevinson, one of
the most famous war artists, was born on 13th August 1889, the son of
the war correspondent and journalist Henry Nevinson and the
suffragette and writer Margaret Nevinson. He did his studies in
London.
Nevinson became friends
with Marinetti, the leader of the Italian Futurists which influenced
him very much. At the outbreak of World War I, Nevinson volunteered
for the Friends' Ambulance Unit with his father. On his return to
Britain in 1915 he painted his first well-known painting : "La
mitrailleuse" to show what war was like from his point of
view. He then became famous as a war artist.
After WWI, he went to the
USA and painted a number of powerful images of New York. However, not
everybody appreciated his work. In 1920, a critic wrote about him: "…
at thirty-one , he is one of the most controversial, best recognized,
most promising, most admired and most hated British artists."
His experience of New
York was useful in rendering his famous London view Among the
nerves of the world in 1930.
This picture is a dynamic
image of Fleet Street at the end of the 1920s. Fleet Street is on the left bank of the
Thames. It was where newspapers were printed. The main entrance to
the Royal Courts of Justice is also located on Fleet Street at Temple
Bar. The view, from an upper window at the corner of Shoe Lane, is
towards the east, Ludgate Hill and St Paul's Cathedral.
It is a patriotic painting showing how dynamic the city of London was. The biggest city in the world up to 1925, it was the heart of the British Empire, one of the most powerful urban areas in the world on a political and economic level.
We imagine the noise of
the trafic and the bussle of the crowd.
St Paul's in the background dominates the scene. St Paul's is a symbol of London (more easy to recognize than Fleet Street).
The picture is probably for the inhabitants of London themselves because it is about London as a powerful city, a city of which the inhabitants can be proud.
