Artists & Illustrators — June 2017

98 Artists & Illustrators

ERIC

RAVILIOUS

ANDY FRIEND UNCOVERS THE

STORIES BEHIND THE ENGRAVER

AND DESIGNER’S FAMOUS WORKS

THAT’S NO BOY

The horizon line beneath the tree

in Ravilious’ famous 1927

wood-engraving, Boy Birdnesting,

is based on the Downs he could

see from his childhood bedroom

• where he went birdnesting as a
  boy. But Ravilious cut it while
  sharing lodgings with his friend
  Douglas Percy Bliss, who
  observed him ‘spending hours
  covering a passage with tiny dots’.
  It was Bliss, as an adult, who
  modelled for the figure, draping
  himself across their shared
  settee in his rugby gear.

HE WASN’T AS

APOLITICAL AS

SOMETIMES THOUGHT

When the Spanish Civil War led

to the communist Artists

International turning towards

popular front politics, Ravilious

was one of the first to sign up as

a celebrity supporter of the 1937

Congress and Exhibition. “I’ve

said yes to everything on the

questionnaire more or less and

sent it off,” he told Binyon after

joining the Portraits For Spain

scheme. Subsequent AIA

Bulletins saw many more artists

follow suit, including Eric Gill

and Paul Nash.

HE HAD A CORONATION CRISIS

Ravilious’ Wedgwood Coronation mug emerged from

the kiln the afternoon Stanley Baldwin confronted the

new King Edward VIII about his marriage intentions in

1936. A few weeks later Mrs Simpson bought one of
      the batch, just before she left for France as scandal
      unfolded. Redundant stock was sent to Ravilious’
      close friends at Christmas, and Edward Bawden
      wrote back: ‘As a supporter of the monarchy – and
      ipso facto of the present vicious capitalist system – I
      suppose you will provide the same form of persuasive
      publicity for geo. 6 [King George VI]?’.

SHOP SPOTTING A SUCCESS

In 1936, shop spotting was a favoured activity for

Ravilious and his lover Helen Binyon. She had

created copper engravings of London shops and

kiosks, and they began developing a joint ‘Alphabet

of Shops’. Binyon soon told him to pursue the project

alone, but Eric got the auto-lithography bug while

creating Newhaven Harbour at the Curwen Press.

The publisher for the shops project demurred at the

cost of switching media, but Noel Carrington at

Country Life Books could see the potential and

produced what was to become one of the most

celebrated publications of the 1930s, High Street.

TEACHER AND PUPIL

From its palette and precision, a

1927 watercolour drawing by

Tirzah Garwood, who Ravilious

later married, could be mistaken

for his own work. He taught her

engraving and she influenced his

illustrations in the 1920s. This

shared experience animated their

work and that of their friends, and

this interplay is explored in the

Towner Art Gallery exhibition.

Ravilious & Co: The Pattern of

Friendship runs from 27 May to 17

September 2017. The book of the

same name by curator Andy Friend

is published by Thames & Hudson.

http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk

TOWNER ART GALLERY, EASTBOURNE

ABOVE Eric

Ravilious, The

Pharmaceutical

Chemist,

auto-lithograph,

1937

ARTY FACTS

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