Through the Goblin Wood

This picture relates to Nisbet’s exhibit, Through the Goblin Wood, hung at the Royal Academy, in 1931, no. 630. A card in the Witt Library suggests that the exhibited picture was a related composition, less wide and with some alteration to the disposition of the figures. It was Nisbet’s practice to produce versions of pictures before settling on a final iteration. Whilst there is pencil under-drawing visible in the present picture, its scale and degree of finish suggest that this picture was worthy of exhibition and sale.

As the fluidity of this painting indicates, Nisbet was an accomplished illustrator in watercolour. Between 1913-1917 she illustrated five books of fairy tales and legends. Although she lived in Merton Park, London SW19, and was married to Harry Bush, a painter of suburban landscapes, Nisbet’s art was firmly rooted in her imagination. As was acknowledged when Dryads in Flight was exhibited in the V&A exhibition, Botticelli Reimagined, (2016, no. 49), Nisbet’s attenuated figures owed much to the early Italian Renaissance. The engravings of Pollaiuolo must have been another source of inspiration. She showed consistently at the Royal Academy between 1914 and 1938, but also supported the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Watercolour Society, and many provincial exhibitions.