Ravilious in Dulwich

I finally got down to Dulwich Gallery to see James Russell's Ravilious exhibition.  What a magical, sparkling feast!  Like two more of my favourite artists, Sickert and Freud,  Ravilious subtly manipulates the viewer, with more than a touch of Magritte;   inanimate objects meticulously observed are poised to take on a life of their own, in other paintings you feel someone has just slipped out of sight.

Here are just three where odd details drew me in, but nothing can compare with seeing the masterly brushwork and design of the watercolours themselves.

Convoy passing an island  1941    The British Council

Prospect from an Attic c. 1932
Scarborough Museums and Gallery

Wet Afternoon  1938      
Dulwich Art Gallery 

 And in the last room, the dark seas of his 1940s Arctic Circle paintings unexpectedly brought to mind Georges de La Tour.

HMS Glorious in the Arctic 1940
© Imperial War Museum

Eric Ravilious blocks

"The blockmaker was Mr Stanley Lawrence of Red Lion Court, and without his firm T. N. Lawrence, the only one to survive from the heyday of commercial wood engraving in the Victorian era, the revival of wood engraving could never have taken place.  All the members of the Society of Wood Engravers found their way up the narrow stairs to Lawrence's old-fashioned office to buy beautiful box-wood blocks cut to the size they asked for,  as well as the inks, rollers, tools and Japanese papers they needed.

In their prospectus for 1931, the Golden Cockerel Press announced their books for the year.  At the head of the list comes 'Twelfth Night, or What you Will,  by William  Shakespeare', described as 'decorated by Eric Ravilious,' ...."

Eric Ravilious:  Memoir of an Artist   Helen Binyon