To many, Eric Ravilious (1903-42) is the master of precise cross-hatched water colour paintings of crystalline luminance: meditative images of a pastoral England which has perhaps never really existed and did not exist when he was painting them. Ravilious was serving as an official war artist with the RAF when he went missing, presumed killed, in September 1942. Despite his short career he is one of the best-known of Britain’s 20th-century artists – not just a painter but also a book illustrator, wood engraver and designer.
 

But where did he get his ideas from? His friendship with Edward Bawden began when both were studying at the Royal College of Art – both were inspired by the work of Paul Nash. Their friendship was the beginning of an artists’ colony at Great Bardfield in Essex. Bawden and his wife Charlotte moved to the village first and invited Ravilious and his wife Tirzah Garwood to join them. Could the art of Eric Ravilious have existed without the friendships and social networks which inspired and employed him?