This book celebrates and commemorates the wartime career of Eric Ravilious who died on active service in Iceland at the age of thirty-nine. As an Official War Artist, Ravilious visited ports, naval bases and airfields around Britain, witnessed the Allied invasion and retreat from Norway and produced watercolours of subjects ranging from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal in action to the interior of a mobile pigeon loft.

Ravilious in Pictures: The War Paintings, features twenty-two of these fascinating images, each accompanied by a short essay in which author James Russell explores the historical context of the work. Drawing on the artist’s correspondence and other contemporary sources, these essays offer an unusual, intriguing vision of life during the early years of the war.