Eric Ravilious SWE (British 1903-1942)

English painter, wood-engraver and designer. He was born in Acton and was educated at Eastbourne School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art (1922–1925), where he was taught by Paul Nash and became close friends with Edward Bawden. He began teaching part-time at Eastbourne School of Art in 1925 and later that year was elected to the Society of Wood Engravers, having been proposed by Paul Nash. After leaving the RCA, he became a master of wood engraving and illustrated numerous books and produced patterned papers for the Curwen Press. In the 1930s he began painting larger compositions in a wider range of colour, and this led him to use lithography to illustrate High Street (1938). Later as a War Artist he produced a series of lithographs of submarines.

Ravilious also produced posters and designs for Wedgwood, including the celebration mug (1936) for the coronation of King Edward VIII, which was withdrawn and revised for the coronations of George VI and Elizabeth II; the Alphabet mug (1937); the Afternoon Tea (1937), Travel (1938) and Garden Implements (1939) china sets; and the Boat Race Day cup (1938). He also designed glass for Stuart Crystal (1934), furniture for Dunbar Hay (1936) and graphic work for advertisements for London Transport and others. Despite his success as a designer, Ravilious concentrated increasingly on watercolours. His landscapes and rural interiors often featured the downland and coast of southern England; haunting and lyrical, these works show a world in suspense and often feature chalk hill figures, as in Train Landscape (c. 1939; Aberdeen, A.G.) and empty rooms (e.g. Farmhouse Bedroom, 1939; London, V&A). In 1939 he became a War Artist, and during World War II he depicted such subjects as De-iceing Aircraft (c. 1942; London, Imperial War Museum). He died while observing a sea rescue mission.

References: J. M. Richards: The Wood Engravings of Eric Ravilious (London, 1972); F. Constable: The England of Eric Ravilious (London, 1982); H. Binyon: Eric Ravilious: Memoir of an Artist (London, 1983); R. Dalrymple: Ravilious and Wedgwood (London, 1986); Eric Ravilious, 1903–42: A Re-assessment of his Life and Work (exh. cat. by P. Andrew, Eastbourne, Towner A.G. & Local Hist. Mus., 1986); R. Garton, ed.: For Shop Use Only: Eric Ravilious (Devizes, 1993); Tate Gallery. Artists at the Curwen Exhibition 178. Horne. The Dictionary of Twentieth Century British Book Illustrators, p. 363.