On Loan
Eric Ravilious
(1903 - 1942)
Hampden Park, 1925
Eric Ravilious (1903 - 1942)
Size:
Height – 62.6cm
Width – 76.3cm
The River Thames at Hammersmith, 1933, was included in Ravilious’ pivotal first one man show at The Zwemmer Gallery, London, (November 1933), An Exhibition of Water‑Colour Drawings. This featured 37 watercolours, of which 20 sold – a success that paved the way for a new chapter in Ravilious’ artistic development. This is the first time the watercolour has been offered for sale since 1933. For the last four decades it has been on long term loan from the Ravilious family, to The Towner Art Gallery.
In Eric Ravilious, Artist and Designer, (Lund Humphries 2013), Alan Powers describes the picture as , “….a busy composition recording a frozen moment beneath a grey light, seen from an upper window, in which the diagonal lines structure the foreground space and objects, while the farther bank recedes in watery layers….. . Passing the age of 30 in the summer of 1933 seems to have marked a moment of change for Ravilious. His mural painting period was almost over, as was the bulk of his work for the private press publishers. — He was excited by the success of his first solo exhibition and ready to devote more time to watercolours, with two days a week in London to teach in the Design School at the RCA and summer free to search for new subjects. The Zwemmer Gallery operated as a sideline to London’s most renowned art bookshop in Charing Cross Road, representing a mixture of home grown and European avant- garde art”.
The viewpoint of The River Thames at Hammersmith is likely to have been taken from Robert Austin’s studio on the top floor of Lingard House. Located on Chiswick Mall, Lingard House, the Austin family home from 1930, overlooks the tailend of Chiswick Eyot, a small, uninhabited island known for its tidal access, wetland plants, and birdlife. During the Industrial Revolution, the eyot was primarily used to grow grass and osiers (a type of willow traditionally used in basketry, furniture-making, and cart-building). This natural motif would likely have appealed to Ravilious, not only for its connection to traditional crafts—an enduring interest of his—but also for the visual possibilities it offered as a repeating pattern within the composition. Eric and Tirzah Ravilious lived at 48 Upper Mall Chiswick from 1931-35, a ten minute walk along the Thames from Lingard House. Robert Austin, 8 years Eric Ravilious senior, was a student at the Royal College of Art (1913 -1921), and from 1927 Professor of Engraving. A friendship, initially formed through their association with the RCA and mutual friends in the Hammersmith artistic community, was strengthened by fellow printmaker Fred Austin—Robert’s younger brother—from whom Eric and Tirzah rented rooms at 48 Upper Mall.
River Thames at Hammersmith is one of only two watercolours by Ravilious that depict London, the other one being, The Stork at Hammersmith, (in the collection of The Towner Art Gallery). In 1933, Eric Ravilious moved to the village of Great Bardfield in Essex, where he and Tirzah began a new chapter among a close-knit group of creatives including Edward Bawden. The move marked a shift in both lifestyle and artistic focus: from the bustle of West London, to the quieter rhythms of rural life. River Thames at Hammersmith serves not only as a portrait of place but also as a personal farewell to the city that had shaped his early career.
Born in London he studied at the Eastbourne School of Art and at The Royal College of Art under Paul Nash, where Edward Bawden became a close friend. Initially a muralist (none of which has survived), he became widely known for his luminous watercolours, woodcuts, lithographs ‘ notably his High Street Shops executed by the Curwen Press, (published by Country Life in 1938 in a book with a text by JM Richards, husband of Peggy Angus), ceramics for Wedgewood and graphics for London Transport, as well as glass and furniture design. Much inspired by the South Downs in East Sussex, he was a frequent visitor to Furlongs, the cottage of the artist Peggy Angus. In 1930 he married fellow artist ‘Tirzah’ Garwood, they then moved to rural Essex, at first sharing a house with the Bawdens. An official World War II artist and with a commission with the Royal Marines, he died while with an RAF air sea rescue mission to Iceland. His works are in the collections of numerous British museums and art galleries, the largest holding is at the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne.
Selected Literature: Alan Powers, Eric Ravillious: Imagined Realities, Imperial War Museum, London, 2003.
