.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present work is an outstanding example of Ravilious' ability to carry the identity of the England of his pre-war painting into his war pictures. Ravilious, along with his friend Edward Bawden, whom he had met at the Royal College of Art, had often depicted the back gardens and greenhouses of middle-class pre-war England. The positioning of the war plane, flags and aerodome at the back of this sunny composition is a deliberate device and helped Ravilious to minimise, in this work, the destructive reality of the war.
It was in 1941, in Dundee, when Ravilious first encountered an aircraft. He was entranced, and for his next six months duty as a war artist, he chose to work with the Royal Air Force, resulting in some of his best work. A year later he was posted with the R.A.F. to Iceland, and on 2nd September 1942 Ravilious took part in an Air Sea Rescue expedition. Tragically, the plane disappeared without trace, and Ravilious became one of the very few official war artists to die on active service.
It was in 1941, in Dundee, when Ravilious first encountered an aircraft. He was entranced, and for his next six months duty as a war artist, he chose to work with the Royal Air Force, resulting in some of his best work. A year later he was posted with the R.A.F. to Iceland, and on 2nd September 1942 Ravilious took part in an Air Sea Rescue expedition. Tragically, the plane disappeared without trace, and Ravilious became one of the very few official war artists to die on active service.