Eric Ravilious ‘Wiltshire Landscape’ Greetings Card.

‘Wiltshire Landscape employs the kind of pattern-making seen in earlier paintings of the downland. This painting is carefully composed, with a row of telegraph poles enhancing the sense of distance and, at the same time, adding structure to the rolling hills. The design is as taught as an aeroplane’s wing, yet we still see the sense of bleakness and beauty of the place. Perhaps Ravilious felt the painting was too melancholy, as he later added the red van – a toy, almost – from a photo in his scrapbook.’

James Russell.

Eric Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was an exceptional watercolourist, wood engraver and designer. He grew up in the shadow of the Sussex Downs in the coastal town of Eastbourne, the surrounding landscape of which heavily influenced many of his best known works. His instantly recognisable style, palette and choice of subject have an almost universal appeal, a blend which has increased in popularity with the passing of time, particularly in the first two decades of the 21st century.