The official combat painter died in 1942 when his plane went down. Now his inspiring life story is the subject of a major documentary
, whose childhood was spent in the same part of Essex where the Ravilious family eventually settled and where their neighbour was Bawden, said: “He takes simple subjects and turns them into masterpieces.”
Known initially for his pastoral settings, Ravilious became one of the first second world war artists in a scheme established by Kenneth Clark, then director of the National Gallery. And it is Ravilious’s war letters that, largely because of his death – he was the first war artist to perish – have such resonance. Some of Tush’s survive too. All were left to their three children.
By summer 1940, Ravilious was on a submarine, which he loved to draw and paint despite the cramped conditions. Based on the south coast, he sent several letters to Tush amid the German bombardment: “It’s pandemonium with all the shelling and yet I feel a stir in me that it really is possible to like drawing war activities.”Alan Bennett, author
Despite her problems, in mid-1942 Ravilious was posted to Iceland. The film tells how Tush felt she could not stop him, though she knew her husband might never return. “I lifted Anne up to wave a final goodbye,” she wrote in her diary. It proved to be a “final goodbye”, as Ravilious died on 2 September. Ullmann recalls in the film being told later “by the lady who lived down the lane, of her coming to my mother with a parcel of his effects. Included were his red spotted handkerchiefs.
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