RAVILIOUS & CO: The Pattern of Friendship

This acclaimed biography details the lives of the British inter-war artists and designers centred on Eric Ravilious, now recognised as one of the most important British artists of the 20th century, whose watercolours and wood engravings capture the essential spirit of mid-century England. Yet he did not work in isolation but within a much wider network of artists, friends and lovers, influenced by Paul Nash's teaching at the Royal College of Art - Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman, Enid Marx, Tirzah Garwood, Percy Horton, Peggy Angus and Helen Binyon among them. The Ravilious group bridged the gap between fine art and design, and the gentle, locally rooted but spritely character of their work came to be seen as the epitome of contemporary British values. Chapters cover South Kensington, Earls Court and Eastbourne, London and Metropolitan, Brickhouse, Furlongs, New Haven, Paris and Mayfair, Bristol and Rye and To Iceland. 80 years after Ravilious's untimely death, Andy Friend tells the story of this group of artists from their student days through to the Second World War and explores how they influenced each other and how a shared experience animated their work. He reveals the significance in this pattern of friendship of women artists whose place within the history of British art has often been neglected. Generously illustrated and including a wealth of newly discovered material, excuse the pun but one of our favourite images is on page 223 a hand-blocked printed material fabric display in Enid Marx's studio, 1936. Enjoy lush countryside from the 1930s in subtly coloured watercolours, sheep shearing, tea parties and cafés, and Ravilious's stunningly detailed wood engravings for example of a woman reading in front of a doorway opening onto a courtyard. Plus colour posters and bookplates, collectables, colourful sketches and more, hundreds of images and a fascinating slice of English artistic and social history. 336 page Thames & Hudson publication, 24 x 16.8cm.
Click YouTube icon to see this book come to life on video.