Eric Ravilious' paintings. And his coronation mugs: 1937-1953

One of the most important legacies of the Industrial Revolution, the Wedgwood Collection, was at great risk of being broken up and sold off in 2014. The Art Fund had until the end of November 2014 to raise millions of pounds, to save the collection and transfer responsibility for its display in the Wedgwood Museum in Barlaston Staffordshire to the V & A. The money was indeed raised in time, and the collection ( 80,000 works of art, ceramics, documents, pattern books and photographs covering the 250-year history of Wedgwood) was saved!

The importance of the Barlaston Museum to Eric Ravilious will become clear in this post.

Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) studied at the Royal College of Art, under the watchful eye of his tutor Paul Nash. Then Ravilious worked as a painter who specialised in murals and soon began to produce wood-engravings. By 1925, critical assessment of the young man’s work was favourable and he won a travelling scholarship to Italy.

In the 1920s-early 1930s I am assuming that he thought of himself a designer in a whole range of art forms, including glass, fur­niture and graphic work for London Transport advertisements. His first mural commission was completed with Edward Bawden, suggesting career paths in industrial and commercial design.

But then he surprised folk by concentrating, from the mid 1930s, on watercolour paintings. From a landscape perspective he was fascinating, with those subtle distortions, unusual textures and patterns, curious perspectives and framing devices all combining to give the paintings their unique and hard-to-define quality. Almost haunting and almost lyrical.

 Tea at Furlongs, 1939

Eric Ravilious and his wife Tirzah Gar­wood moved to rural Essex in 1930 and initially lived with Edward and Charlotte Bawden in the little village of Great Bardfield. They leased an old Georgian home that was falling apart but the wives seemed to tolerate the lack of running water and electricity.

In 1934 Eric Ravilious was invited by the artist Peggy Angus to stay at her home, Furlongs. Furlongs was a small flint-faced cottage on the Firle Estate on Sussex's South Downs. Ravilious was captivated by the local landscape and over the next five years he and Tirzah visited many times. In both homes, Ravilious' paintings were watercolours that combined taut design with a light touch, pale colours and a very careful composition.

 Interior at Furlongs, 1939

What I did not know was that Ravilious produced several designs for Wedgwood, particularly in response to their commission for the coronation of King Edward VIII after his father’s death in January 1936. As the world found out, Edward wanted to marry the twice-divorced Mrs Simpson; so the new king felt he had no choice but to abdicate in December 1936 and leave Britain. The celebratory mug was no long­er needed for King Edward’s coronation but it could certainly be revised and used for the next coronation, that of King George VI in May 1937.

Ravilious did not know that he was going to die on war service in 1942, accompanying a Royal Air Force air sea rescue mission off Iceland. But he had already created pencil drawings which could be later made into engravings by the decorators at Wedgwood. Eleven years after his death, Ravilious' celeb­ratory mugs were once again very popular for the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II!

For King Edward's coronation, 1937 (top)

King George's coronation, 1938

Examine the 1953 coronation design. The earthenware was transfer-printed in black and enamelled in colours. Note the Royal Arms and with bursting yellow enamel fireworks above the inscription '1953 ER'. The lower part of the mug was washed in pale pink. 

We can see that the old (1936) Ravilious designs had been maintained with their original unusual textures and very pale patterns, in time for the 1953 celebrations.

For Queen Elizabeth's coronation, 1953 

front and back

Ravilious also designed a commemorative Barlaston mug in 1940, celebrating Wedgwood’s move to its new purpose-built factory at Barlaston. Even though it was in the middle of WW2, Ravilious came up with a revol­ut­ionary design that was produced by the new lithographic process and enhanced by hand colouring, rather than using the more-traditional skills of transfer-printing and hand-enamelling. The mug featured the bust Josiah Wedgwood I. Impressions of the pottery kilns and stylised flames appeared on either side of the portrait.

Barlaston mug, 1940

with Wedgwood's bust on reverse

Ravilious’ designs, which gave a sense of both times past and cont­inuity, are on permanent display at The Wedgwood Museum in Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent!!

In 2015 the Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden in Essex also celebrated the Ravilious objects. The main gallery dis­played works by the Bardfield Artists, from the arrival of Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious in 1930. The "Art Of Acquisition Exhibition" continued until late October 2015, capturing the spirit of the Great Bardfield artists' houses via their wallpaper designs, rugs, fabrics, water col­ours and ceramics.