Ravilious & Co.: The Pattern of Friendship

A dynamic tale of art and friendship, set between the World Wars, against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world

Eric Ravilious is one of the best-known twentieth-century English artists. For many, his watercolors capture the spirit of midcentury England. But while he had a style of his own, he did not work in isolation; he worked within a network of artists that included fellow students at the Royal College of Art such as Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman, Enid Marx, Percy Horton, Peggy Angus, and Helen Binyon.

The story of this beloved artist is also a biography of the group of fellow creators with whom he associated—men and women who inspired, challenged, and influenced one another—from their student days up through the Second World War. Drawing on extensive research, Andy Friend considers the predecessors in the English watercolor and wood-engraving tradition that influenced the group’s art and demonstrates the significance of women artists, whose place within this interwar-era network has often been neglected.

Published to coincide with the seventy-fifth anniversary of Ravilious’s death, Ravilious & Co. accompanies an exhibition of the same name, touring throughout England in 2017.