{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O123853"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O123853/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BT9438/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BT9438/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2008BT9438","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BK2883","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O123853/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O123853","accessionNumber":"E.555-1972","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"A Young Airman","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"The Neo-romantic artist and designer Eric Ravilious, who studied under Paul Nash at the Royal College of Art, was instrumental in bringing about a renaissance in British printmaking in the 1920s and 1930s.  This small wood engraving is typical of his lyrical style, which was influenced by early German and Flemish woodcuts and the work of British engraver Thomas Bewick (1753-1828).  In hindsight, the rather menacing subject - the shadow of a plane falling on a hill - seems to foreshadow Ravilious's untimely death. An official war artist from 1939, he died when his plane crashed during a sea rescue mission off the coast of Iceland in 1942. ","physicalDescription":"A wood engraving showing a small biplane flying over a hill surrounded by deciduous and palm trees; the plane's shadow covers part of the hill.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Ravilious, Eric","id":"A878"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Golden Cockerel Press","id":"AUTH316809"},"association":{"text":"publishers","id":"AAT25574"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"The Golden Cockerel Press","id":"AUTH316809"},"association":{"text":"publisher","id":"x32600"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"wood engraving block","id":"x35494"},{"text":"printing ink","id":"AAT187371"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"wood engraving","id":"AAT53303"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Wood engraving","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"}],"styles":[{"text":"English Neo-Romantic","id":"x35515"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2008BT9438","2006BK2883"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLC (VA)","id":"THES49171"},"free":"","case":"EW","shelf":"150","box":"A"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1933","earliest":"1933-01-01","latest":"1933-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"92","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"approx.","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"116","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"approx.","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Sheet is torn around the edges; the measurements given above are for the longest part of each side.","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Eric Ravilious'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed by the artist in pencil, below and to the right of the design."}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"Eric Ravilious was one of the leading Neo-Romantic artists in the 1920s and 1930s.  He was instrumental in bringing about a renaissance in British printmaking (particularly wood engraving), producing engravings for the Golden Cockerel, Curwen and Nonesuch presses.  In the late 1930s, before becoming an official war artist, he lived in the village of Great Bardfield, Essex, whose residents included fellow neo-Romantics Kenneth Rowntree, Edward Bawden, and Michael Rothenstein.","briefDescription":"Wood engraving by Eric Ravilious to illustrate 'Fifty-Four Conceits' by Martin Armstrong.  Great Britain, 1933.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"'The first book Ravilious illustrated in 1926 was <i>Desert: A Legend</i> by Martin Armstrong. 54 Conceits [by the same author] is a collection of his sardonic verses concerned principally with death and dying [...] Thr engravings are used in most cases to illustrate two or three verses. Ravilious provides an engraving with a strong connection to one of the verses (almost always the first one) and the title for that verse has been used as a working title for the engraving. [...] \r\nA Young Airman\r\n1933\r\nThe engraving is printed on page 12. It is used again, apparently unchanged, as an illustration in <i>The Poems of Thomas Hennell</i>, and a version is used as a decoration on the Wedgwood <i>Travel</i> crockery.\r\nA YOUNG AIRMAN\r\n<i>I loved to slide between earth and sun,\r\nLaughing at sulky Death, till Death, as one\r\nWho loses patience with a teasing fly,\r\nBrought me to earth and in this earth I lie'</i>\r\nJeremy Greenwood, Ravilious Engravings, The Wood Lea Press, Great Britain, 2008, p.178-179"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"aeroplanes","id":"AAT212616"},{"text":"shadows","id":"AAT56036"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.555-1972"],"accessionNumberNum":"555","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1972,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2006-05-11","availableToBook":false}}