Ravilious in Pictures. Vol. 2, War Paintings

by James Russell, Tim Mainstone (Editor), Eric William Ravilious (Illustrator)

Ravilious in The War Paintings' celebrates and commemorates the wartime career of Eric Ravilious (1939-42), who died on active service in Iceland at the age of thirty-nine. As an Official War Artist, Ravilious visited ports, naval bases and airfields around Britain, witnessed the Allied invasion and retreat from Norway and produced watercolours and lithographs of subjects ranging from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal in action to the interior of a mobile pigeon loft. This remarkable body of work blends defiance with exhilaration and insists that there is a place for beauty in the darkest times. `Ravilious in The War Paintings', features twenty-two of these fascinating images, each accompanied by a short essay in which author James Russell explores the historical context of the work. Drawing on the artist's correspondence and other contemporary sources, these essays offer an unusual, intriguing vision of life during the early years of the war.

Genres: Art

48 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2010

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of Ravilious paintings during his time as war artist during WWII. There are collections of his other work in this series which look interesting. These aren't my favourite of his but an interesting part of his work and sadly of the time when he lost his life in active service.

[Brian Robbins · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pictures are brilliant - now want to see the other two volumes of this, which include his countryside, peacetime pictures.

Some of authors commentaries on particular pictures were reasonably good, although still with a tendency to simply list things that you could see if you looked at the picture.

Some were not very useful at all. For instance the quibble about a painting of spitfires on an airfield. The squadron based there at the time the picture was painted were not equipped with spitfires! Oh good Lord! But - whew!!! - a squadron did visit with them about that time. There's a relief!

All in all, though, a pleasant little intro to Ravilious' paintings.

[Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book in the series of solid pictures by Ravilious. This series is superb. Each double page has a page of background to the art, and the other shows the glorious muted colours of Ravilious' work. Such a shame that his war work was to be his last