Spring 2029

A supremely talented wood engraver, lithographer and designer for industry, Eric Ravilious (1903–1942) was first and foremost a modern painter who chose to work in watercolour. Since the 2015 blockbuster exhibition Ravilious at Dulwich Picture Gallery, he has been recognised as one of the finest artists of his generation. This fully illustrated catalogue raisonné will include all of the 250-plus watercolours completed by Ravilious during his brief but brilliant career, along with appendices covering unfinished and missing works.

Based on close study of the works themselves and new research into Ravilious’s art world connections and sources of inspiration, the catalogue will feature commentary on individual works, including provenance and history of exhibition and literature. A full-length critical essay will explore in depth the artist’s influences, his watercolour and drawing techniques and his unique approach to composition, and will assess his achievements within the context of British and international mid-century modern art. The famously laid-back artist was an avid, lifelong student of watercolour (British and international, old and new) and also incorporated into his work a dizzying range of influences, from Persian miniatures to the latest Constructivist experiments. One important aim of the catalogue raisonné is to explore how Ravilious wove this material into works that are uniquely and unmistakably his.

The art historian James Russell was the curator of the Ravilious exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, in 2015 and of its follow-up in 2024, Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious. As well as the catalogues of these exhibitions, Russell has written the four-volume series ‘Ravilious in Pictures’ (Mainstone Press 2009–12) and titles devoted to Ravilious as a wood engraver and lithographer. His exhibition Ancient Landscapes, Modern Times: Eric Ravilious & the Artists of the Chalk Downs opens at the Holburne Museum, Bath, in October 2026.