Eric Ravilious

Book excerpt: More popular than ever, the work of Eric Ravilious (1903-42) is rooted in the landscape of mid-20th-century England. This new survey of his work by Alan Powers, the established authority on Ravilious, is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of his art in all media - watercolour, illustration, printmaking, graphic design, textiles and ceramics - and positions Ravilious firmly as a major figure in the history of early 20th-century British art. In an accessible and engaging text, copiously illustrated with reproductions of work drawn from a range of sources, Alan Powers discusses the reception of Ravilious's work since his death in 1942 and the part it has played in creating an English style of the time, positioned between tradition and Modernism, and borrowing from naive and popular art of the past.