On the 18th of September 1940 Eric Ravilious passed through his hometown of Eastbourne on his way to Newhaven. Eastbourne had suffered extensive bombing…’Eastbourne is like the ruins of Pompeii here and there and almost no one left in the town. I went to see my family to find them gone off to my sister (in Oldham) and Tirzah’s family away too, so I stayed the night and came away as quickly as I could.’
Eric arrived at Royal Navy Headquarters, Newhaven on the 19th of September. Admiral Sir William James, the nephew of John Everett Millais and the child model for ‘Bubbles,’ had suggested that Eric go to Newhaven to paint the coastal defences there.
Sir William Milbourne James wearing the mantle of the Order of the Bath. The five-year-old James in Bubbles. During the Second World War, James served as Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, from 1939. In 1940 he commanded Operation Aerial, the evacuation of British troops from Brittany and Normandy, a parallel operation to the Dunkirk evacuation.
Ravilious climbed up to the fort, built between 1859 and 1871 against possible invasion by Napoleon lll, and painted its ditches and retaining walls perched on the cliffs and overlooking the harbour, where he and Edward Bawden had worked four years earlier. From ‘Eric Ravilious Artist and Designer,’ by Alan Powers 2013.
Coastal Defences 1. ER’s title for this was ‘Britannia needs no Bulwarks. Imperial War Museum.
Coastal Defences 2, 1940, is a view of Newhaven Fort with lookouts, flagstaff, searchlight and gun emplacement. Ravilious wrote: ‘It is marvellous on the cliffs in this weather, though the wind blows a bit, and bombs fall every afternoon, and sometimes planes. One doesn’t have to run for shelter as at Portsmouth, so there are less interruptions.’ Now in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The work was a Gift of the New Zealand Government to the Museum in 1949.
On the 21st September Eric wrote to Tirzah:
My darling Tush,
Here is a short letter because I’ve had a long day’s work: not that much is done but a lot of exploring, and twice I’ve been hauled into the fort for enquiry. Now if the weather improves, I may do something. The scene is every bit as good as it used to be with some modifications. There are raids, but what of it, and on the whole things are very quiet. I saw a man yesterday drop a can of tar on the head of his mate blow from a ladder. It was a perfect aim.
It is nice to be away from London and Eastbourne and working again, though how to draw I’m not sure. They will be much the same as before probably.
How are you and the children? I wish the post would come, but it now takes a week or so and I don’t even look out for the letters yet. Will you send me some cash and if you are hard up write a polite note to Dickey*. I must write to him too – perhaps you had better leave it to me. I will write tomorrow, I’m in bed.
All my love, Eric.
*Secretary of the War Artists’ Advisory Committee.
Coastal Defences 3, Newhaven. Aberdeen Art Gallery, presented in 1947 by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee.
Sometime around the 24th or 25th September Eric left his berth in Naval Headquarters and moved to Grays House a half mile north of Newhaven Fort, so much closer to work. The house on Western Road, was the home of Dr Donald a’ Brook and his wife Violet Ann.
Coastal Defences, Convoy leaving Harbour, Newhaven. In this scene, Ravilious depicts the semi-circular curve of the coastline in dark greens and blues, colours which are repeated in the sea and sky. Imperial War Museum, London.
Writing to Jim Richards* on the 29th of September:
……..I still paint these pictures and feel as keen about it as I ever did though who is to see them I don’t know. Newhaven is such a nice place. I always liked it and before had never tried to paint the fort. It is a bit like that Delhi? Observatory from the extreme West Side.
The wind blows hard on these cliffs, though it is exhilarating up there in this weather, and bombs only fall at tea-time every day. So one puts on a tin hat and hopes for the best……….Give my love to Peggy.
*Jim Richards was a close friend of Eric’s, married to Peggy Angus. Richards wrote the text for High Street (ER’s lithographs).
Coastal Defences, Newhaven Fort. Imperial War Museum, London.
By mid-October Eric was back at home with the family in Castle Hedingham. Six finished paintings were produced during the Newhaven visit although one of them was lost at sea by enemy action.
Coastal Defences 4. Lost by Enemy Action.
And here’s one you won’t have seen before. Eric painted a scene ‘night piece’. ‘A night piece which is a failure, I might spend Sunday doing it again.’ After the end of the war Tirzah collaged Eric’s watercolour.
Tirzah Garwood/Eric Ravilious, Night Piece.
This late summer 2023 Newhaven celebrated a Ravilious Art Trail with large billboards of Erics paintings of Newhaven. https://newhavenenterprisezone.com/ravilious/
The gun is still there as photographed by Eric Ravilious & Friends Facebook group member Mike Wicksteed.
Graham Bennison, November 2023. https://www.facebook.com/BennisonArtist
Artistic Horizons 