Main content

Eric Ravilious: Chalk and Ice

Alexandra Harris explores the life and work of artist Eric Ravilious, considered to be one of the best watercolourists of the 20th century.

Eric Ravilious is considered one of the best watercolourists of the twentieth century. His art is increasingly familiar: a chalk horse seen through a train window, an engine abandoned in a field, the oddly sinister curve of a hosepipe on a greenhouse floor. 'Eric Ravilious: Chalk and Ice' explores the Essex landscapes that Ravilious loved. The Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden is a treasure-house of his work from ceramics and book illustrations to the sublime watercolours he painted before serving as an Official War Artist in the Arctic Circle where he died in 1942 at the age of only 39. Alexandra Harris explores the life of work of this elusive man and his art with the writers Hermione Lee and Robert Macfarlane, art historians Frances Spalding and Alan Powers, poets Pauline Stainer and Sean O'Brien and the Director of the Fry Gallery David Oelman..

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Sun 9 Aug 2015 19:15

Downs in Winter, 1934

Downs in Winter, 1934
Collection Β© Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, Ravilious Room

Train Going over a Bridge at Night, 1935

Train Going over a Bridge at Night, 1935

Collection Β© Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, Ravilious Room

Broadcasts

  • Sun 8 Feb 2015 18:45
  • Sun 9 Aug 2015 19:15

Featured in...

What was really wrong with Beethoven?

What was really wrong with Beethoven?

Georgia Mann and neurosurgeon Henry Marsh explore the puzzle of Beethoven’s poor health.

Classical music in a strongman's Russia – has anything changed since Stalin's day?

What composer Gabriel Prokofiev and I found in Putin's Moscow...

Six Secret Smuggled Books

Six classic works of literature we wouldn't have read if they hadn't been smuggled...

Grid

Seven images inspired by the grid

World Music collector, Sir David Attenborough

The field recordings Attenborough of music performances around the world.