Ravilious & Co

The Pattern of Friendship

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The first biography of the circle of British inter-war artists and designers centred on Ravilious – an enthralling narrative of creative achievement, joy and tragedy

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In recent years Eric Ravilious has become recognized as one of the most important British artists of the 20th century, whose watercolours and wood engravings capture an essential sense of place and the spirit of mid-century England. What is less appreciated is that he did not work in isolation, but within a much wider network of artists, friends and lovers influenced by Paul Nash’s teaching at the Royal College of Art – Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman, Enid Marx, Tirzah Garwood, Percy Horton, Peggy Angus and Helen Binyon among them. The Ravilious group bridged the gap between fine art and design, and the gentle, locally rooted but spritely character of their work came to be seen as the epitome of contemporary British values.

Seventy-five years after Ravilious’s untimely death, Andy Friend tells the story of this group of artists from their student days through to the Second World War. Ravilious & Co. explores how they influenced each other and how a shared experience animated their work, revealing the significance in this pattern of friendship of women artists, whose place within the history of British art has often been neglected. Generously illustrated and drawing on extensive research, and a wealth of newly discovered material, Ravilious & Co. is an enthralling narrative of creative achievement, joy and tragedy.


Shortlisted for the Beautiful Books category of the Books Are My Bag Awards 2017

One of Peter Conrad's Books of the Year, Observer

A Guardian Book of the Year

A Sunday Times Best Biography/Autobiography of the Year

A Spectator Book of the Year
Extent: 336 pp
Format: Hardback
Publication date: 2017-04-20
Size: 24.0 x 16.5 cm
ISBN: 9780500239551

Press Reviews

The book is magnificent. I can’t recommend it enough ... Andy Friend seems to have opened new vistas on the lives, loves and connections of this mesmerising and migrant artist – right up to his last fatal flight off Iceland in 1942
Robert Macfarlane

A lovingly researched and crafted portrait of intricately connected creative lives... New voices emerge from the archives, unfamiliar images light up the pages. Here, above all, is the joyous making of art
Alexandra Harris, author of WEATHERLAND

Friend excels … in the glimpses he offers of the lives behind the art
The Times

One of the best biographies this year … a lovely account
Guardian

About the Author

Andy Friend first became interested in the art of Eric Ravilious and his circle while living in Australia and missing the English landscape. Two decades later, back in Sussex, he conceived and co-curated Towner’s major touring exhibition ‘Ravilious & Co.’, which attracted 100,000 visitors.

Alan Powers, author of Eric Ravilious: Artist and Designer, teaches, writes and curates on themes relating to twentieth-century art, architecture and design. He published Edward Ardizzone: Artist and Illustrator. in 2016, and Enid Marx: The Pleasures of Pattern in 2018.

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