Eric Ravilious(Click on Picture for a larger image)

After Eastbourne School of Art, Ravilious enrolled at the Royal College of Art where he immediately met Edward Bawden, who was to become a life-long friend. Influenced by his tutor, Paul Nash, Ravilious was to achieve great success and recognition in the fields of design, wood engraving, mural decoration, and watercolour. His death in a flying accident while a War Artist, curtailed a career of exceptional promise. Exhibitions and publications during 2003, his centenary year, established his name firmly in the forefront of 20th century English artists.

Different Aspects of Submarines

This is part of a series of ten lithographs made in 1942 at HMS Dolphin, the Royal Navy's Submarine Training Facility in Gosport while Ravilious was employed as a war artist. The Fry Gallery is fortunate in owning a complete set of the originals (it is thought that only ten sets were ever produced), through the generous assistance of The Art Fund.

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Hull's Mill, Castle Hedingham

(Purchased with assistance from The Art Fund and the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund) Hulls Mill was a working flourmill situated near Castle Hedingham where the artist had moved in 1934. The painting demonstrates his characteristic limited palette, his facility and joy with pastoral scenes and the usual suggestion of human (yet absent) presence in the form of the stacked sacks awaiting collection, and the coned exhaust pipe for the diesel engine that we know had been recently installed to power the mill. It is interesting to see Ravilious's range of painting techniques, such as the use of dry brush marks (left side hedge), wet colour base with darker colour added subsequently (right side hedge) and scraping the paper to bring back the white (roadway).

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Paxton & Whitfield, Cheesemonger

An illustration from HIGH STREET  (Curwen Press 1938 for Country Life)   Ravilious searched for the unusual on the high street and drew scenes from twenty four shops. His friend, J.M. Richards, was asked to supply the text which was aimed at children as well as adults, and the title was supplied by Gwyneth Lloyd-Thomas, a friend of Edward Bawden’s wife Charlotte.

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Piccadilly Circus Boat Race Design Bowl

Ceramic design for Wedgwood showing the celebrations in Piccadilly Circus following the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in1928.

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The Attic Bedroom

This dates from the time that Ravilious and Bawden and their wives were occupying Brick House in Great Bardfield. Previously as bachelors the two artists had rented half of it for weekends, and an opportunity to paint, but in 1932 Bawden acquired all of it on his marriage, and the two couples shared it until the Ravilious's moved to Castle Hedingham in 1934. The attic, shown here, carries a number of interesting associations - the lifebelt may have been left behind by the previous owner, a retired stewardess on a liner; the cacti were collected by Bawden, and the whole scene demonstrates the usual absence of tangible human presence that characterised the artist's work up until his war years. This room, when compared with others, is unusually full of objects. Evidence of previous pencil drawing before watercolour can also been seen on close examination.

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The Rich Jew of Malta

An illustration from THE FAMOUS TRAGEDY OF THE RICH JEW OF MALTA As it was played before the King and Queene, in His Majesties Theatre at White-Hall, by her Majesties Servants at the Cock-pit. Written by Christopher Marlowe & printed by I.B. for Nicholas Vavasour 1633.  From an edition published by.The Golden Hours Press, London.  1933..

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Two Women in A Garden

The Raviliouses were invited to share Brick House with the Bawdens, and in 1933 they too moved permanently to Essex. Something of the initial harmony that existed between Tirzah and Charlotte is conveyed by the Eric Ravilious watercolour in this exhibition. It shows them both in the garden: Charlotte reads in a deckchair while Tirzah, seated under a tree, appears to be podding peas, and this crisp portrayal of a rural scene catches the peace and purposefulness that life at Great Bardfield offered.

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