The Great Convoy to North Africa (1943)
Photo: Imperial War Museum      
© IWM Art.IWM ART LD 3477

The Great Convoy to North Africa

1943

Oil on panel
36.8 x 127 cm

Imperial War Museum, London


Seascapes | Coastal Scenes Official War Artist Commissioned Works Wartime Panoramas Bonfires | Flames | Smoke All Works in Public Collections Ships | Boats | Harbours | Ports Birds Eye View Works | 1940 to 1949 Narrative

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Recto: Signed lower right: R Eurich 1943

Aka: The Great Convoy to North Africa, 1942 [IWM], The Great Convoy to North Africa [Bradford]; Great African Convoy (with field glasses) [RE sales diary]

IWM Imperial War Museum Royal Navy Spitfire WW2 WWII World War 2 World War II aeroplanes aircraft binoculars boats ships crowd formation hands lifeboat military ship public collection sea spectators troop ships troops war war artist warships wartime

RE has painted in a caption bottom centre that reads: "In the hands of the Royal Navy, an Allied convoy of 800 ships sailed with an army to North Africa. November 1942."

REP

23rd September 1943: “Mavis suggested that the sea in the long convoy picture ought to have more surface. So I worked all day at it , and it looked frightful. We both looked at it and said “How awful!” and so I took a rag and wiped it all off! Most disheartening.”

RE diary entry

See another painting of this subject, The Great Convoy to North Africa, November 1942.

Provenance

COMMISSIONED | 1943

by the Admiralty / War Artists' Advisory Committee

EXHIBITED | 1944

"National War Pictures" - National Gallery, London

GIFTED | 1947

Imperial War Museum, London

transferred from the War Artists' Advisory Committee; accession number IWM ART LD 3477

EXHIBITED | 25th Nov 1979 to 20th Jan 1980

"Richard Eurich, RA - A Retrospective Exhibition" - Cartwright Hall Gallery, Bradford District Museums and Galleries, Bradford    (toured Glasgow, London, Southampton)

Cat 32

EXHIBITED | 26th Sep 1991 to 12th Jan 1992

"Richard Eurich - From Dunkirk to D-Day" - Imperial War Museum, London, UK

Cat 25

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Provenance:

  • COMMISSIONED - 1943 - by the Admiralty / War Artists' Advisory Committee
  • GIFTED - 1947 - Imperial War Museum, London
    transferred from the War Artists' Advisory Committee; accession number IWM ART LD 3477

Exhibitions:

  • 1944 - "National War Pictures", National Gallery, London
  • 25th Nov 1979 to 20th Jan 1980 - "Richard Eurich, RA - A Retrospective Exhibition", Cartwright Hall Gallery, Bradford District Museums and Galleries, Bradford    (toured Glasgow, London, Southampton)
    Cat 32
  • 26th Sep 1991 to 12th Jan 1992 - "Richard Eurich - From Dunkirk to D-Day", Imperial War Museum, London, UK
    Cat 25

Notes:

  • None recorded.

Related  

The Great Convoy to North Africa, November 1942 (1943)

Image © Crown copyright. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1947 (CC BY-NC-ND)

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References:

  • War Paint: Art, War, State and Identity in Britain, 1939–1945 (by Brian Foss, pub. Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-10890-3, 2007) [illustrated, Fig. 178, pg. 143]
  • Poet of the Beach (Peyton Skipwith, Country Life, 19 September 2020)
  • Colours of War, War Art 1939-45 [ISBN-10 : 0224020382, ISBN-13 : 978-0224020381] (Alan Ross, Jonathan Cape) [cover picture]
  • Art UK [artuk.org]
  • Art of World War II; A Culture Show Special to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain (broadcast May 2020: BBC4 TV)
  • Illustrated London News [date unknown]
  • Imperial War Museum [link]
  • The Sea, the sea (review by Jonathan Meades of the Edge of All the Land exhibition (1994) republished in a book of his selected writings - Pedro and Ricky Come Again, pub. Unbound: 18 March 2021, ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1783529504; ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1783529506)
  • William Rothenstein & Richard Eurich - WAR ARTISTS [Fourth in a series in the Not Just Hockney series of books about past artists from the Bradford district.] (Colin Neville, Not Just Hockney, 2021) [pg 16]
  • Art UK Curations 3 [Themed groups of works selected from the Art UK online catalogue by art professionals and members of the public.] [Artists and wartime places: Richard Eurich | curated by David Saywell, Head of Digital Assets, Art UK]
  • In Focus: The Anglo-German pacifist-turned-war artist who famously chronicled Dunkirk — despite not being there [cut down version of Peyton Skipwith's article for the printed version, edited by Gavin Stamp - Sept 18, 2020] (Peyton Skipwith, Country Life - online)