Eric Ravilious Eric William Ravilious ( 22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942 ) was an English painter , designer , book illustrator and wood engraver . He grew up in Sussex , and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs . He served as a war artist , and died when the aircraft he was on was lost off Iceland . Life . Ravilious was born on 22 July 1903 in Churchfield Road , Acton , London , the son of Frank Ravilious and his wife Emma ( " née " Ford ) . While he was still a small child the family moved to Eastbourne in Sussex , where his parents ran an antique shop . He was educated at Eastbourne Grammar school . In 1919 he won a scholarship to Eastbourne School of Art and in 1922 another to study at the Design School at the Royal College of Art . There he became close friends with Edward Bawden and , from 1924 , studied under Paul Nash . Nash , an enthusiast for wood engraving , encouraged him in the technique , and was impressed enough by his work to propose him for membership of the Society of Wood Engravers in 1925 , and helped him to get commissions . In 1925 he received a travelling scholarship to Italy and visitied Florence , Siena , and the hill towns of Tuscany . Following this he began teaching part - time at the Eastbourne School of Art , and from 1930 taught ( also part - time ) at the Royal College of Art . In the same year he married Eileen Lucy " Tirzah " Garwood ( 1908 - 1951 ) also a noted artist and engraver . Between 1930 and 1932 the couple lived in Hammersmith , London , where there is a blue plaque on the wall of their house at the corner of Upper Mall and Weltje Road . In 1932 they moved to rural Essex where they initially lodged with Edward Bawden at Great Bardfield . In 1934 they purchased Bank House at Castle Hedingham , and a blue plaque now commemorates this . They had three children : John Ravilious ; the photographer James Ravilious ; and Anne Ullmann , editor of books on her parents and their work . Mural painting . In 1928 Ravilious and Bawden painted a mural at Morley College in South London on which they worked for a whole year . Their work was described by J . M . Richards as " sharp in detail , clean in colour , with an odd humour in their marionette - like figures " and " a striking departure from the conventions of mural painting at that time " . It was destroyed by bombing in 1941 . In 1933 Ravilious and his wife painted murals at the Midland Hotel in Morecambe . Printmaking and illustration . Ravilious engraved more than four hundred illustrations and drew over forty lithographic designs for books and publications during his lifetime . His first commission , in 1926 , was to illustrate a novel for Jonathan Cape . He went on to produce work both for large companies such as the Lanston Corporation and smaller , less commercial publishers , such as the Golden Cockerel Press ( for whom he illustrated an edition of " Twelfth Night " ) , the Curwen Press and the Cresset Press . His woodcut of two Victorian gentlemen playing cricket has appeared on the front cover of every edition of " Wisden Cricketers ' Almanack " since 1938 . Hiis style of wood - engraving was greatly influenced by that of Thomas Bewick . In the mid - 1930s he took up lithography , making a print of " Newhaven Harbour " for the " Contemporary Lithographs " scheme , and a set of full - page lithographs for a book called " High Street " , with text by J . M . Richards . Design . In 1936 Ravilious was invited by Wedgwood to make designs for ceramics . His work for them included a commemorative mug to mark the coronation of Edward VIII , the " Boat Race " bowl and the " Garden " series of plates , in which each size of plate showed a different plant . Production of Ravilious ' designs continued into the 1950s , with the coronation mug design being posthumously reworked for the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953 . Watercolour . Apart from a brief experimentation with oils in 1930 – inspired by the works of Johan Zoffany – Ravilious painted almost entirely in watercolour . He was especially inspired by the landscape of the South Downs around Beddingham . He frequently returned to Furlongs , the cottage of Peggy Angus . He considered that his time at Furlongs " . . . altered my whole outlook and way of painting , I think because the colour of the landscape was so lovely and the design so beautifully obvious . . . that I simply had to abandon my tinted drawings " . Some of his most famous works , such as " Tea at Furlongs " , were painted there . Writer Geraldine Bedell : - " his painting was influenced by his design . His elegant watercolours , with their stipples , hatching and drastically simplified shapes , are instantly recognisable . And he maintained his artistic identity when he became a war artist . - His work is light of touch , elegant , and hugely pleasurable . " War artist . Ravilious was appointed an official war artist in 1940 , with the rank of Honorary Captain in the Royal Marines . During that year he painted at the Royal Naval Barracks at Chatham and Sheerness ; sailed to Norway and the Arctic on board HMS Highlander , which was carrying out escort duties , and painted submarines at Gosport and coastal defences at Newlyn . In 1941 he spent six months with the navy at Dover , then transferred to Scotland in October . He spent much of 1942 at various R . A . F . bases , before being posted to Iceland in August . Death . He was killed on 2 September 1942 while accompanying a Royal Air Force air sea rescue mission off Iceland that failed to return to its base . In 1946 , his widow married Henry Swanzy .