Ravilious was first appointed an official War Artist at the very end of 1939. He made an initial suggestion that he would produce a portfolio of lithographs on war subjects, particularly submarines, but the War Artists Advisory Committee did not immediately approve the cost of the printing. Ravilious was sent on other postings in the meantime, but by the summer he was based at Southport and Gosport and had the opportunity to board submarines and even make trips on them. In Avant-Garde British Printmaking, Carey & Griffiths quote at length the comments he sent back to the committee:
It is awfully hot below when submarines dive and every compartment small and full of people at work. However, this is a change from destroyers and I enjoy the state of complete calm after the North Sea – there is no roll or movement at all in submarines, which is one condition in their favour – apart from the peculiar submarine smell, the heat and the noise. There is something jolly good about it, if only I can manage it, a blue gloom with coloured lights and everyone in shirts and braces. People go to sleep in odd positions across tables (pg.145-146).
Ravilious started work on a series of watercolours inspired by these trips, while going back and forth with the Committee and various printers about what form his submarine-related work would take and who would undertake the printing. The committee initially requested a children’s colouring book but upon reviewing the associated costs, suggested that he find a publisher instead. Ravilious appears to have pursued discussions with various publishers before deciding to proceed independently:
So I’m doing the lithographs myself for fun. The bill is heavy but may be worth it in the long run, as the Leicester Galleries may show them. . . Ipswich will print the things, and I start work tomorrow (Carey & Griffiths, pg.146).
At this point, the printer was W.S. Cornell in Ipswich (Curwen Press, with whom Ravilious had previously worked, had been bombed). The series seemed to have posed a technical challenge and opportunity for greater experimentation for Ravilious, away from the strictures and demands of an agreed publisher. He wrote to a friend:
It is fairly difficult and wholly absorbing trying to work out the superimpositions of five colours in all sorts of tones and textures and the rest. Lithography ink is beastly stuff, greasy and thick. The printer at Ipswich is very good and willing to make expensive experiments, and as I pay for the job instead of a publisher I rather want to try what experiments I can (Carey & Griffiths, pg.146).
The artist’s perseverance with this project and creative experimentation with what was a relatively new print method for him, having only made his first lithograph in 1936, paid off, and the series is a great success. At first they present decoratively, exemplifying a pleasingly coherent colour palette and Ravilious’ distinct ability to convey texture in print; however, closer inspection reveals the true atmosphere of the submarine, the eeriness and isolation of this foreign vessel characterised in part by the artificial light and cramped conditions. The series remains an important record of the particular experience of inhabiting a submarine in the War, as well as an example of the creative abilities of this great artist in print.
