Eric Ravilious and a remarkable generation of British artists found enduring inspiration in the ancient chalk landscapes of southern England. This autumn, a major Holburne exhibition explores how these timeless hills helped shape a new vision of modern British art.
From the cliffs of Dover and the chalk giants of Wilmington and Dorset to the white horses of Wiltshire, the chalk downs form one of the most distinctive landscapes in England. Protected from overdevelopment and largely unchanged for centuries, their sweeping white escarpments, ancient hill figures carved into the chalk by early man and vast open skies have captivated artists, writers and visitors for generations. Here, thousands of years of history sit side by side with the present. Prehistoric monuments, age-old trackways and timeless horizons seem to watch over the modern world. For Eric Ravilious and a notable circle of twentieth-century painters, these hills came to represent a deep-rooted idea of Englishness.
Ravilious knew this country well. Born in London but raised among the rolling landscapes of Sussex, he studied at Eastbourne School of Art before winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art. Here, he formed lasting friendships with fellow artists Edward Bawden and Tirzah Garwood, whom he later married, and came under the influence of Paul Nash. Nash’s approach to landscape helped encourage Ravilious to look beyond conventional landscape painting and towards a broader world of illustration, design and printmaking.
Ravilious would become an accomplished designer and one of the finest wood engravers of his generation, but today it is perhaps his watercolours for which he is best known. His paintings of the South Downs are immediately recognisable. White horses, ploughed fields, empty roads and rolling hills are reduced to crisp patterns and curious perspectives, rendered in the luminous, restrained dry-brush technique that became his signature. Rarely sentimental, he presented the English landscape through a distinctly modernist eye.
For artists finding a new visual language in the early twentieth century, the chalk landscape offered something unlike any other in Britain. It possessed an extraordinary sense of order. Broad hills are intersected by ancient paths, neatly divided fields, winding lanes and rows of fence posts or telegraph poles measuring their way to distant horizons. Even freshly ploughed earth becomes a pattern of lines and rhythms.
As a designer and master wood engraver, Ravilious instinctively understood these patterns, bringing a skilled appreciation of line, balance and composition to his work. His paintings distilled each scene into its essential elements.
Together with fellow mid-century British artists including Paul Nash, John Nash, Tirzah Garwood, Peggy Angus and William Nicholson, the chalk downs represented far more than picturesque countryside. They became places in which to explore ideas of identity, history and belonging at a time when Britain itself was undergoing profound social and political change. For Paul Nash, that fascination endured throughout his career, from the youthful The Wood on the Hill (1912) to the haunting March Landscape (1944), painted just two years before his death.
It is this relationship between sense of place and artistic imagination that lies at the heart of the Holburne Museum’s forthcoming exhibition, Ancient Landscape, Modern Times – Eric Ravilious and the Artists of the Chalk Downs (3 October 2026 – 10 January 2027). Curated by author, art historian and leading authority on Eric Ravilious, James Russell, the exhibition brings together paintings, drawings, prints as well as archival material to explore how a group of artists reimagined Britain’s chalk landscapes during one of the most turbulent and transformative periods of the twentieth century. “I’m delighted to bring so many wonderful artworks to Bath. We have the very best of Eric Ravilious alongside marvellous paintings, drawings and prints by some of the great talents of the age. I can’t wait!” says James.
The chalk downs represented far more than picturesque countryside; they became places in which to explore identity, history and belonging.
One of the pleasures of the exhibition is seeing how differently the artists responded to the same landscape, where history, archaeology and modern life intersected. The rolling hills of Sussex, Wiltshire, Dorset and the Chilterns became landscapes layered with meaning. William Nicholson’s luminous On the Downs (1924), for example, shows simplified forms and radiant light, illustrating how these artists were moving beyond traditional landscape painting towards something unmistakably modern.
As aerial photography, archaeology and easier travel transformed the way Britain understood its countryside, the chalk downs acquired an almost mythical significance. Influential books such as H. J. Massingham’s Downland Man (1926) encouraged a renewed fascination with the nation’s prehistoric past, while growing archaeological interest in sites such as Avebury and Maiden Castle reinforced the idea that these seemingly quiet settings still hold the secrets of Britain’s mysterious past. Ravilious’s celebrated The Westbury Horse (1939) captures that idea beautifully. The ancient figure is unmistakable, but there is nothing antiquarian about the painting. Its aerial viewpoint, strong geometry and almost graphic treatment make the scene feel thoroughly modern.
Image courtesy Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden
As visitors move through the exhibition, the mood shifts almost imperceptibly. The early sections celebrate a landscape that appears timeless, where ancient monuments, white horses and gently cultivated hills inspired artists searching for a new way of seeing England.
Gradually, however, modernity begins to intrude. Roads, railways and industry start to appear on the scene. Works such as Peggy Angus’s Asham Cement Works (1934) alongside Ravilious’s own version [shown above] demonstrate how artists included modern development without losing sight of the landscape beneath it.
The political tensions of the late 1930s cast an ever-lengthening shadow. Ravilious’s Tea at Furlongs (1939), with its idyllic domesticity, was painted on the eve of a war that would transform his work, his life and the world around him.
The landscape had not changed; the world around it had.
For Ravilious – whose career was cut tragically short at the age of just 39 while serving as an official war artist – the transformation feels especially poignant. His wartime paintings retain the serene clarity of his earlier works, although now, the same hills, coastlines and cliffs feature searchlights, artillery and military observation posts. The landscape had not changed; the world around it had.
Nearly a century later, the chalk downs remain remarkably recognisable: the open skies, rolling hills, ancient tracks and great figures cut into the chalk are all still there. What Ravilious and his contemporaries found in this landscape was something both ancient and modern. Their paintings invite us to take a closer look – and perhaps to see these familiar hills a little differently.
Director of the Holburne, Chris Stephens, says: “I am so excited by Ancient Landscape, Modern Times, which will bring together some of the most beautiful and compelling images of modern British art and consider them within the very particular contexts of the times in which they were made, a period of modernisation and of political drama.”
Ancient Landscape, Modern Times
Eric Ravilious and the Artists of the Chalk Downs
3 October 2026 to 10 January 2027
The Holburne Museum,
Great Pulteney Street, Bath BA2 4DB
Find exhibition details and tickets at: holburne.org
