Editing Eric Ravilious (section)

==War artist==
[[File:HMS Glorious in the Arctic (Art IWM ART LD 283).jpg|thumb|''HMS Glorious in the Arctic'', 1940 (Art IWM ART LD 283)]]
[[File:Morning on the Tarmac (Art. IWM ART LD 1712).jpg|thumb|''Morning on the Tarmac'', 1941 (Art. IWM ART LD 1712)]]
Prior to the outbreak of [[WWII]] Ravilious aligned himself with anti-fascist causes, including lending his work to the 1937 exhibition ''Artists Against Fascism''.<ref name=":1" /> He considered joining the military as a rifleman but was deterred by friends; he joined a [[Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post|Royal Observer Corps post]] in [[Castle Hedingham|Hedingham]] at the outbreak of war.<ref name=":1" /> He was then accepted as a full-time salaried artist by the [[War Artists' Advisory Committee]] in December 1939.<ref name="erIWM">{{cite web |author=Imperial War Museum|url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1050000806
|title=War artists archive:Eric Ravilious |access-date=1 January 2014|work=[[Imperial War Museum]]}}</ref>{{efn|''Arts and Industry'' magazine, whose associate editor was Ravilious' colleague [[Robert Harling (typographer)|Robert Harling]], commented in 1940: "We cannot help thinking that this may seem an odder war to posterity when they see it reproduced in the drawings of Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious.<ref name="Art And Industry 1940">{{cite news|title=Notes & News|url=http://magazines.iaddb.org/issue/CAI/1940-05-01/edition/null/page/38?query=|access-date=14 August 2017|work=Art And Industry|date=1940}}{{Dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>}}  He was given the rank of Honorary Captain in the [[Royal Marines]]<ref>[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34807/page/1394 The London Gazette Publication date: 8 March 1940 Issue: 34807 Page: 1394]</ref> and assigned to the Admiralty.

In February 1940, he reported to the Royal Naval barracks at [[Chatham Dockyard]]. While based there he painted ships at the dockside, barrage balloons at [[Sheerness]] and other coastal defences. ''Dangerous Work at Low Tide, 1940'' depicts bomb disposal experts approaching a German magnetic mine on [[Whitstable]] Sands. Two members of the team Ravilious painted were later awarded the [[Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)|Distinguished Service Cross]].<ref name="erMoD">{{cite web |author=Ministry of Defence|url=https://www.gov.uk/ministry-of-defence-art-collection|title=Ministry of Defence Art Collection |access-date=1 January 2014|work=The Ministry of Defence}}</ref>

On 24 May 1940 Ravilious sailed to Norway aboard [[HMS Highlander (H44)|HMS ''Highlander'']] which was escorting [[HMS Glorious|HMS ''Glorious'']] and the force being sent to recapture [[Narvik]]. ''Highlander'' returned to Scapa Flow before departing for Norway a second time on 31 May 1940. From the deck of ''Highlander'', Ravilious painted scenes of both [[HMS Ark Royal (91)|HMS ''Ark Royal'']] and HMS ''Glorious'' in action. ''HMS Glorious in the Arctic'' depicts [[Hawker Hurricanes]] and [[Gloster Gladiators]] landing on the deck of ''Glorious'' as part of the evacuation of forces from Norway on 7/8 June. The following evening ''Glorious'' was sunk, with great loss of life.<ref name="Russell"/>

On returning from Norway, Ravilious was posted to [[Portsmouth]] from where he painted submarine interiors at [[Gosport]] and coastal defences at [[Newhaven, East Sussex|Newhaven]].<ref name=Subs>{{cite web |author=Elizabeth Dooley|url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/art/artist/ericravilious/wu0312 |title=''Submarine''|date=30 November 2012 |access-date=8 October 2016|work=University of Warwick Art Collection}}</ref> After Ravilious's third child was born in April 1941, the family moved out of Bank House to Ironbridge Farm near [[Shalford, Essex]]. The rent on this property was paid partly in cash and partly in paintings, which are among the few private works Ravilious completed during the war.<ref name="CLife"/> In October 1941 Ravilious transferred to Scotland, having spent six months based at Dover. In Scotland, Ravilious first stayed with [[John Nash (artist)|John Nash]] and his wife at their cottage on the [[Firth of Forth]] and painted convoy subjects from the signal station on the [[Isle of May]]. At the Royal Naval Air Station in Dundee, Ravilious drew, and sometimes flew in, the [[Supermarine Walrus]] seaplanes based there.<ref name="Russell"/>

In early 1942, Ravilious was posted to York but shortly afterwards was allowed to return home to Shalford when his wife was diagnosed with [[breast cancer]].<ref name=":2" /> There he worked on his York paintings and requested a posting to a nearby RAF base while Garwood recovered from a [[mastectomy]]. He spent a short time at [[RAF Debden]] before moving to [[RAF Sawbridgeworth]] in [[Hertfordshire]]. At Sawbridgeworth he began flying regularly in the [[de Havilland Tiger Moth]]s based at the flying school there and would sketch other planes in flight from the rear cockpit of the plane.<ref name="Russell">{{cite book|author=James Russell|publisher=The Mainstone Press|year=2010|title=Ravilious In Pictures, The War Paintings|isbn=978-0955277740}}</ref>