Nash saw 1928 as the year of 'a new vision and a new style'. In November of that year the Italian Metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico exhibited in London and his influence seems apparent in this formal and austere picture. During the 1930s it was called 'The Moorish Tower, Cros de Cagnes' after a resort near Nice where the artist had stayed n January 1925. This surreal composition of a fresh-water fountain beside the salt sea may have alchemical overtones.
