Eric Ravilious

Submarines in Dry Dock

1940

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Not on display

Artist: Eric Ravilious 1903–1942
Medium: Graphite, watercolour, crayon and pastel on paper
Dimensions: Support: 432 × 571 mm
frame: 707 × 820 × 25 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
Reference: N05722

Display caption

Ravilious studied at the Royal College of Art, where he was taught by Paul Nash and became close friends with Edward Bawden. He went on to produce designs for Wedgwood and Stuart Crystal and advertisements for London Transport.
Ravilious was attached to the Admiralty with the honorary rank of Captain, Royal Marines from February 1940. Submarines in Dry Dock was probably painted at Chatham or Sheerness where he spent much of the first two months of his service as a war artist. Midnight Sun was painted shortly after, on a trip to Norway in a destroyer.

Gallery label, September 2004

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Catalogue entry

N05722 SUBMARINES IN DRY DOCK 1940

Not inscribed.
Watercolour, 17×22 1/2 (43×57).
Presented by the War Artists' Advisory Committee 1946.
Exh: National War Pictures, R.A., October–November 1945 (182); Eastbourne and Brighton, 1948 (39).

Ravilious was attached to the Admiralty with the honorary rank of Captain, Royal Marines, from 10 February 1940, and this picture was painted before 12 April of that year as is clear from correspondence at the Imperial War Museum. It was probably painted at Chatham or Sheerness where he spent the greater part of his time during the first two months of his service as a War Artist.

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