Eric Ravilious was among the foremost of English artists to emerge between the wars – and one of the great original wood engravers. His body of work was wide-ranging and multi-faceted; in his relatively short career after he left the Royal College of Art he produced an extraordinary amount of work – murals, watercolours, wood engravings, lithographs and pottery designs for Wedgwood.
As successful and enterprising as he was in these diverse fields, it was in the field of landscape painting in watercolour that Ravilious excelled. His tragic and untimely death in 1942, while on service as an Official War Artist, meant that his great promise was never fulfilled and it has been left to Helen Binyon to present this fascinating study of the artist to a world largely unaware of his presence. The author knew Ravilious well from their student days and has been able to draw upon her intimate knowledge of this vivid and exciting artist to make this a compelling account of a genius.
Memoir of an Artist is introduced by Richard Morphet, Deputy Keeper of Modern Art at the Tate Gallery, who places Ravilious in the context of modern-day appreciation of his work and describes the close relationship between Eric Ravilious and Helen Binyon, which led her to write this illuminating book, now reprinted by The Lutterworth Press in paperback.
The book is lavishly illustrated with examples of Ravilious's work from his student days to his powerfully realised drawings and paintings as an Official War Artist.
"This book will surely afford widespread pleasure: Eric Ravilious remains one of the most ardently admired members of a generation marked by outstanding talent, and Helen Binyon, a fellow student and intimate friend until the end of his life, was by far the best qualified to write it."
From the Foreword by Sir John Rothenstein