Harbour and Room
- Artist: Paul Nash
- Date: 1932–6
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 914 x 711 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Harbour and Room” by Paul Nash, an oil on canvas created in the early 1930s. Nash painted it while staying on the French Riviera in 1930. The scene comes from a trick of light: a ship reflected in the large mirror that hung in front of his bedroom. That mirror created a dream‑like illusion of a warship sailing into his room, a moment he translated onto canvas. The painting feels surreal, reflecting Nash’s fascination with the unconscious and the Surrealist movement that was sweeping Europe. Yet he never abandoned his English sensibility; he wrote that he was the only artist of his generation who dared to transform the English tradition. The work first appeared in the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition and later at the Venice Biennale. It sits in a quiet, almost theatrical interior that blends domestic space with the distant sea, reminding us how Nash could merge everyday scenes with the extraordinary.
See it in person
Harbour and Room is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
