Eric Ravilious, 1903-42, was one of the most popular artists of his time but, following his death during World War II, his reputation declined. This catalogue accompanied the first major retrospective exhibition at the Imperial War Museum celebrating the centenary of the artist’s birth.
Revilious was active across a range of media – book illustration in wood engavings and lithography, pottery and textile design and painting. He painted watercolours [using minimal water and combining colour with differentiated graphic strokes], almost exclusively landscapes, and developed a very personal, albeit rather detached style.
This catalogue by Alan Powers, includes illustrations from a broad range of sources, including many from private collections. It contains 89 full page reproductions, almost all in colour and full-page, that range chronologically from the sensitively drawn pencil sketch “Untitled [Child]”, 1927, to works illustrating wartime themes just before his death.
Following an Introduction, illustrated chapters focus on the artist’s Murals, Illustration, Design, Watercolours and War Paintings. There is a Conclusion ‘Imagined and Imaginal Realities’ and the book ends with a Bibliograpgy, brief details of 25 works in the exhibition not illustrated here, a Chronology and a List of Lenders.
It is refreshing to find an artist unafflicted by serious artistic crises – he was ‘gay and easy and ready for anything’ whilst ‘friends thought of him as a butterfly’. Perhaps this carefree attitude and a lack of interest in both oil painting [which he considered ‘like using toothpaste’), the medium of the ‘real artist’, and Modernism contributed to his subsequent neglect. Whilst there are many contemporary photographs and personal reminiscences, this self-effacing English artist remains somewhat out of focus – not, of course, the main requirement of a catalogue of the artist’s work.
A feature of Ravilious’ painting was the juxtaposition of nature and machine; farm machinery in a field [“Downs in Winter”, 1934], an abandoned car [“Talbot-Darracq”, 1935], a waterwheel amongst trees [“Waterwheel”, 1938], ship’s parts [“Ship’s Screw on a Railway Track”, 1940] or an aeroplane overhead [“Runway Perspective”, 1942]. He also exploited the window as an internal frame for nature [Interior at “Furlongs” and “Train Landscape”, both 1939; “RNAS Sick Bay”, 1941] or as a means for nature to flourish internally [“The Greenhouse: Cyclamen and Tomatoes”, 1935, and “The Carnation House”, c. 1938]. Man’s influence on nature is also evident in his series of works featuring chalk figures [“The Westbury Horse”, “Chalk Figure nr Weymouth”, “The Vale of the White Horse”, “The Wilmington Giant” and “The Cerne Abbas Giant”, all 1939].
Other common motifs include fences that obstruct entry into the picture [“Firle Beacon”, 1927] and walkways [“The Stork, Hammersmith”, 1932, “Channel Steamer leaving Harbour”, 1935] and roads [“Train going over a Bridge at Night”, c. 1935, “Village Street”, 1936, “Caravans”, c. 1936, “Cuckmere Haven”, c. 1939 and “Convoy passing an Island (May Island)”, 1941] that take the viewer into the image. Skies are usually grey or cloudy, or wintery.
The catalogue shows designs for murals for Morley Hall in London, the art deco Midland Hotel in Morcambe and Colwyn Bay Pier, none of which survive, but there are fascinating photographs of the artist creating them. His wood engravings include landscapes and figurative designs, and show great precision and assurance [as in “Decoration for a prospectus published by the Golden Cockerel Press”, 1934]. The ceramic designs include commemorative mugs, tableware, “Alphabet” nursery ware, 1937, a “Boat Race Day” bowl, 1938, and a “Garden Implements” jug, 1939.
Appointed an official war artist, Ravilious created many of the works for which he is best known. Unlike contemporaries he does not focus on the horrors of war, once again mostly looking at military machines, planes [“Tiger Moth”, 1942], vessels [“Submarines in Dry Dock”, 1940, “Rainbow and Camouflaged Ships”, 1942] and guns firing at distant targets [“HMS Ark Royal in Action”, 1940, “Firing a 9.2 Gun”, 1941]. Only rarely do figures appear [“Coastal Defences” and “Dangerous Work at Low Tide”, both 1940].
In 1942 he was in an Air Sea Rescue flight in Iceland dispatched to search for another seaplane. It never returned and he was one of only three official war artists to die in action. An excellent catalogue for a key mid-20th British artist.
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