South Coast Beach

Artist Eric Ravilious (London, England, 1903 - 1942)

Date1939-1942

Mediumwatercolour on paper

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsSight Size: Height: 43 cm, Width: 54.5 cm
Frame Size: 59 × 70.4 × 4cm

AcquisitionPresented in 1947 by the War Artists' Advisory Committee.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG003117

Keywords

About MeEric Ravilious studied initially at Eastbourne College of Art and then the Royal College of Art in London, where he later taught design from 1929 to 1938. At London, Ravilious was tutored by Paul Nash. The downland coast of Sussex seems to have been the training ground for his painting where he found his instinct for design, linear and spatial pattern and the use of texture.

When World War II broke out Ravilious was made an official war artist to record aspects of the war effort. In 'South Coast Beach' the barricades and intertwining barbed wire reveal the impact of war on the landscape which made ordinary pursuits such as sailing impossible for a time. In 1942 the artist was killed in an aeroplane that left Iceland on a reconnaissance flight.
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A simple but very telling study of the impact of war on the south coast of England which illustrates the artist's "...off-kilter, modernist sensibility and clarity".

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