Eric Ravilious ‘Two Women in a Garden’ Greetings Card (landscape).

Eric Ravilious ‘Two Women in a Garden’, watercolour, 1933.

This scene depicts a quiet scene in the garden of Brick House, Great Bardfield, Essex. The women are Charlotte Bawden (reading under the walnut tree) and Tirzah Garwood (shelling peas). Tirzah was married to Eric Ravilious, and was herself an established artist. The two couples were sharing Brick house at the time, and Tirzah’s rather good memoir ‘Long Live Great Bardfield’ is available from Persephone Books.

Eric Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was an exceptional watercolourist, wood engraver and designer. He grew up in the shadow of the Sussex Downs in the coastal town of Eastbourne, the surrounding landscape of which heavily influenced many of his best known works. His instantly recognisable style, palette and choice of subject have an almost universal appeal, a blend which has increased in popularity with the passing of time, particularly in the first two decades of the 21st century.