# Eric William Ravilious artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/eric-william-ravilious/
Profile generated: 2026-05-10T09:56:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1903-07-22
- Death date: 1942-09-02
- Nationality: British
- Movements: English landscape modernism
- Common media: watercolour, wood engraving, design and book illustration

## About Eric William Ravilious

Eric William Ravilious (1903–1942) was a British painter, wood engraver, designer, and book illustrator whose watercolours of the South Downs and other English landscapes are recognised for their distinctive modernist clarity and slightly unsettling perspective. Born in Acton, west London, he studied at the Royal College of Art under Paul Nash and later returned as a part-time instructor. Ravilious brought a fresh, angular sensibility to traditional English scenery, drawing on vernacular architecture, rural interiors, and coastal subjects. He also designed ceramics for Wedgwood and produced celebrated book illustrations and wood engravings. Appointed an official war artist in 1939, he documented coastal defences, submarines, and airfields. In September 1942, Ravilious boarded an aircraft on a search-and-rescue flight off Iceland; the plane failed to return, making him the first British war artist to die on active service. His output, cut short at thirty-nine, is held by major institutions including Tate, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Imperial War Museum.

## Common works and media

Collectors and appraisers most frequently encounter Ravilious through watercolour landscapes of the South Downs and East Anglian coast, wartime watercolours produced during his official war-artist service, wood-engraved book illustrations and independent prints, and ceramic and glass designs manufactured by Wedgwood. Lithographs, posters, and commercial design commissions also appear on the secondary market. His works on paper constitute the majority of material at auction.

## Market and appraisal context

Ravilious's early death limits the total body of work, contributing to sustained collector demand. Watercolours—especially South Downs landscapes and wartime scenes—are the most commercially significant category at auction, followed by wood engravings, lithographic prints, and designs for Wedgwood ceramics. Provenance, condition, and exhibition history are key appraisal factors. Illustrated books and ephemeral printed material form a separate but active collecting area. Consult recent auction records for comparable realised prices, as values vary considerably by medium, size, and subject.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine structured artist-identity research from museum, library-authority, and scholarly sources with public auction records, auction-house cataloguing, sale dates, and comparable-lot data when those records are available. For Eric Ravilious, identity data is drawn from Getty ULAN, VIAF, the Library of Congress, RKD, Tate, and the Museum of Modern Art.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1351572
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Ravilious
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500014911
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/15842729/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83142256
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/65352
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/eric-ravilious-1817
- RKD - Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/65772