Ravilious produced Newhaven Harbour in 1937 for Contemporary Lithographs Ltd, a venture which enlisted many of the most talented artists of the 1920’s and ‘30’s (see Artists: Piper; Bawden; Ardizzone; John and Paul Nash). They produced auto-lithographs – lithographs on which the artists themselves worked (rather than simply the printer). These works were disseminated widely, often to schools. The idea was to bring artistic excellence to those who neither owned, nor had easy access to art through public galleries.

Ravilious called Newhaven Habour his ‘homage to Seurat’. Seurat (1859-91) developed the pointillist technique. He applied tiny dots of pure pigment, finding that this produced luminosity and brightness of colour in his paintings. As homage the work is certainly effective. Newhaven Harbour is one of Ravilious’s best loved works.

Giclée Print; Limited Edition (1/950) on 310gsm thick, 100% cotton rag. Hand-numbered and hand-embossed.

Image 37 x 53 cm I Overall Paper Size 56 x 70 cm