Eric Kennington

Sergeant H.D. Parker, R.A.F.

1941

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Not on display

Artist: Eric Kennington 1888–1960
Medium: Pastel on paper
Dimensions: Support: 784 × 533 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
Reference: N05704

Catalogue entry

N05704 SERGEANT H. D. PARKER, R.A.F. 1941

Inscr. ‘EHK 1941’ b.r.
Pastel, 30 7/8×21 (78·5×53·5).
Presented by the War Artists' Advisory Committee 1946.
Exh: National War Pictures, National Gallery and Glasgow, 1945, and R.A., October–November 1945 (106).
Repr: E. H. Kennington, Drawing the R.A.F., 1942, pl.33 (in colour); Eric Newton, War Pictures at the National Gallery, 1942, n.p.

The artist wrote (9 April 1958) that this was one of three sergeants, bomber pilots, drawn after a daylight raid on shipping off Le Havre, 1941. In his Foreword to Drawing the R.A.F. Sir Ronald Storrs quotes the artist as saying that he would never have deserted the Army for the R.A.F. if T. E. Lawrence had not done so. Writing to E. M. O'R. Dickey early in October 1941 the artist lists Sergeant Parker as at ‘82 Squadron at Bodney, Norfolk, last May’.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I