Eric Ravilious: Landscapes & Nature (V&A Artists in Focus)

A joyful and celebratory gift book devoted to the work of the much-loved English artist Eric Ravilious (1903–1942) and the influence of natural forms and themes in his work.

Eric Ravilious was a designer, painter, printmaker, and illustrator best known for his war work and depictions of the English landscape, particularly the South Downs in Sussex. Often described as a particularly “English” artist, key to his style was an ability to convey in watercolor the nuances of the British climate. Eric Ravilious: Landscapes & Nature explores his appreciation of the natural world and the techniques he used in a variety of media to convey its various elements.

Drawing on the V&A’s collections, more than one hundred beautiful images capture Ravilious’s deep enjoyment of everything in nature, from grassy hills, owls, greenhouse geraniums, and snow, to rainy seas, airport-runway puddles, and tideswept beaches. This book reveals common themes running through his work, such as weather, plants, animals, and birds, as well as Ravilious’s love of depicting signs of human presence in the landscape, including rusting machinery, ships and aircraft, and his famous illustrations of hillside chalk figures.

Although best known for his watercolors, Ravilious was also inspired to learn wood engraving by seeing the V&A’s Samuel Palmer exhibition of 1926. Due to encouragement by his tutor Paul Nash and later to financial pressures, Ravilious turned his hand to a wide variety of creative work, from designs for ceramics, glass, furniture, murals, and textiles, to illustrating books, pamphlets, and posters.

122 illustrations

Ella Ravilious is curator: architecture and design at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She is the daughter of photographer James Ravilious and the granddaughter of artist Eric Ravilious. Her book Eric Ravilious: Landscapes & Nature was published in association with the V&A in the fall of 2023.