‘I quite believe in Pan and when I should cast upon the hospitality of the woods and hedgerows I should study Nature and make never ending drawings,’ Nash told one of his cousins shortly after his mother’s death. It was a remark that reflected the young man’s romantic, mystical nature, but also indicates the great significance that particular places would hold for him throughout his life. He explored the idea in Outline, where he discussed visits to Kensington Gardens that he made in early childhood. ‘Here I became aware of trees, felt the grass for the first time, saw an expanse of water, listened to a new kind of silence.’ It was there that he discovered what he called …my first authentic place… There are places, just as there are people and objects and works of art, those relationship of parts creates a mystery, an enchantment, which cannot be analysed. Early in 1912, Nash was introduced to the elderly artist Sir William Blake Richmond, who encouraged him to keep drawing, and also suggested, ‘My boy you should go in for Nature.’ Nash had ‘only a vague comprehension’ of what Sir William meant, but out of curiosity ‘began to consider what Nature offered, as it were, in raw material. How would a picture of, say, three trees in a field look, with no supernatural inhabitants of the earth or sky, with no human figures, with no story?’ The Peacock Path is an outstanding work from Nash’s early career, and an early answer to that question. It depicts the unpeopled Eden of the home counties, a wooded glade verged by the eponymous peacock path. A peacock path is a common feature in the garden of an English country house, as at Groombridge Place or the Peacock Garden at Great Dixter. An eccentric symbol of the exotic, the peacock has long been treated as an embellishment, comparable to manicured topiary. Nash’s image does not conjure the idea of a refined country garden but, rather, of a quiet agrarian landscape. The path separates a plane of long grass from an elegant avenue of trees. A gentle slope lies beyond. Nash visited Wittenham Clumps in Berkshire for the first time in summer 1912, shortly after he finished his studies at the Slade School of Art in December 1911. The Clumps – a group of trees isolated at the summit of two distinct chalk hills – held a special significance for Nash which lasted his full career. It is thought that The Peacock Path depicts a vale near the Clumps, along with a small number of other works. These were exhibited together at Nash’s first one-man exhibition, held at the Carfax Gallery, Kensington, in 1912. It was Sir William Blake Richmond that recommended Nash to the Carfax Gallery’s proprietor, A.B. Clifton. Upon viewing some of Nash’s drawings, Clifton is said to have remarked ‘Yes, they are something new’. Clifton was not just referring to Nash’s imagery, and The Peacock Path is executed with imaginative combinations of mark making. The shadow of a tree falls across the path in the foreground, rendered in finely textured hatching. The volume of the canopy is suggested by an ethereal wash of pallid green, outlined with sharp meandering lines. Some small areas of spacious cross-hatching and detailing indicate shade and a few small leaves at the edge of the tree. The assured delicacy of colouring and the warm buff tone of the paper suggest a listless afternoon of high summer, still and hot. The enticing effect of the work is underpinned by its technical refinement, drawing together a delicate and ingenious method with Nash’s characteristically vivid sense of place.