Early life

Ravilious was born in Eastbourne

Eastbourne

Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...

, the second son of the neo-romantic artist Eric Ravilious

Eric Ravilious

Eric William Ravilious was an English painter, designer, book illustrator and wood engraver.-Career:Ravilious studied at Eastbourne School of Art, and at the Royal College of Art, where he studied under Paul Nash and became close friends with Edward Bawden.He began his working life as a muralist,...

.

Having previously studied as an accountant, Ravilious made a career change and entered into St Martin's School of Art, London, in 1959 under the assumed name of Souryer. He then served as a teacher at Hammersmith College for seven years.

In 1970 James married Caroline (known as Robin) Whistler, daughter of glass-engraver and poet Laurence Whistler

Laurence Whistler

Sir Alan Charles Laurence Whistler, CBE was a British poet and artist who devoted himself to glass engraving, on goblets and bowls blown to his own designs, and on large-scale panels and windows in churches and private houses...

. Together they had two children.

Photography

Inspired by seeing an exhibition of the work of French photographer Henri Cartier Bresson, Ravilious took up photography shortly after moving with his wife to Devon during the 1970s. He was asked to contribute work to the Beaford Archive, intended as a means of documenting images that show the lifestyle associated with a small area of North Devon. What began as a short-term project turned into a seventeen year quest, with Ravilious making some 80,000 black and white images for Beaford Arts

Beaford Arts

Beaford Arts was established by the Dartington Hall Trust in 1966 to promote and support the arts in rural north Devon - an area of 799 square miles bounded by Dartmoor, Exmoor, and the Atlantic west coast....

, and preserving some additional 5,000 old photographs of the area. The archive is now an internationally important collection.

Further reading

• Hamilton, Peter. An English Eye: The Photographs of James Ravilious. Tiverton: Devon, 1998. ISBN 1855226286.
• Ravilious, James. A Corner of England: North Devon Landscapes and People. Tiverton: Devon, 1996. ISBN 0-86114-897-5
• Ravilious, James. Down the Deep Lanes. Devon, 2001. ISBN 1-85522-743-6
• Ravilious, James. Heart of the Country. London: Scolar, 1980. ISBN 0-85967-590-4

External links

• jamesravilious.com
• Obituary by James P. Beacham, The Guardian
  The Guardian
  The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
  
  , 8 October 1999.
• James Ravilious: A World in Photographs, 30-minute documentary by Banyak Films 2006
• The Beaford Archive
• "The History Boy": Andrew Dickson interviews Alan Bennett
  Alan Bennett
  Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
  
   on Ravilious's work. The Guardian
  The Guardian
  The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
  
  , 15 November 2007.