Artwork of the Week - 1st July 2013

 

Eric Ravilious was born in Acton in 1903 but grew up in Eastbourne, Sussex, where he studied until he received a scholarship to the Royal College of Art where he was taught by Paul Nash. It was also there that he became friends and sometimes work companion with Edward Bawden.

 

Eric Ravilious went on to design for Wedgewood and in 1938 Country Life published the book High Street for which Ravilious supplied a series of lithographs documenting the charms of Victorian high street shops.

 

In 1940 Eric Ravilious was appointed Official War artist. During this time he produced watercolours documented the setting up of coastal defences, he also worked on a series of lithographs which recorded life as a submariner patrolling the Channel waters. In 1942, aged just 39, Ravilious was posted to Iceland, and in September he participated in an air/sea rescue on board a Hudson plane in search of an aircraft that had disappeared the previous day. The Hudson itself, however, was lost and Ravilious, along with four others, never returned from this mission.

 

Public collections holding Eric Ravilious work include: British Museum, Imperial War Museum, London’s Transport Museum, Ministry of Defence Art Collection and Victoria & Albert Museum.

 

 

Dangerous Work at Low Tide, a watercolour from 1940, is a rare Eric Ravilious work, not only because Ravilious seldom depicts people in his paintings, but because there’s a poignant combination of task at hand with sheer beauty of place. Naval officers have been sent to the oyster beds at Whitestable, Kent, to diffuse a German magnetic mine – one of only two washed up on the English coast. But the sun, low upon the horizon, depicts a scene of glass-flat tidal pools and a sky of serene beauty, a beauty that belies the danger that these officers were in fact facing. Two of the men, Commander Obbard and Lieutenant West, were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for their courage, and the painting took pride of place amongst Ravilious’ works when exhibited after the war at the first War Artists’ Exhibition.

 

This piece has been produced as a Limited Edition Giclee Print on 310gms thick, 100% cotton rag, hand numbered and hand embossed paper. It can be purchased from Union Art now.