Richard Ernst Eurich (1903 - 1992)

29th Apr 1939:

Rex has sent Solent Fort and Staithes to the RA

May 6th

Staithes reproduced in Yorkshire Post. Solent Fort in RA Illustrated.

29th Apr 1939:

Started painting of large trees in Forest with foreground of logs (30x25) [Now in MOMA New York]

29th May 1939:

Started painting Flushing (20x24) for a show by French and English in Australia

The painting remained in the UK, we presume because of the onset of the war, and was exhibited twice at the Redfern before being bought by a private collector, who loaned it back to the Redfern in 1943 for another show.

3rd Jun 1939:

Motored to Broadchalke with Mr. and Mrs. Pope and Mavis to see Mrs. L Wood, mother of Kit Wood. Lots and lots of his paintings, and such a lovely house.

16th Jun 1939:

Finished Dunkerque, Flushing, and Forest with Huntsmen (25x30)

22nd Jun 1939:

King and Queen arrived from Canada on the Empress of Britain

We went down to see them come in escorted by craft of all kinds. A fine sight, thousands of people lining the shore.

26th Jun 1939:

Mark Gertler’s death recorded in the Times

. . . I remember when still at Bradford seeing his “Basque Shepherdess” loaned by the Contemporary Art Society. It killed everything round it, so rich and beautifully designed.

1st Jul 1939:

Took painting of 'Robin Hood’s Town’ in to Southampton Art Gallery for the ‘Adult Education’ exhibition. Saw Conran and had a talk with him.

2nd Jul 1939:

Started painting of ‘Antwerp'

4th Jul 1939:

Painting all day, started work on Cathedral tower [on 'Antwerp']. The problem of tone values will be interesting, but the depth of the composition will have to depend on design as  already I am using pure black.

14th Jul 1939:

Rex [of the Redfern gallery] says Munnings is going to work to get me on the list of next candidates for A.R.A.

17th Jul 1939:

Drawing for a small painting of thatching going on next door (16x20), later purchased by Sir Gerald Kelly

3rd Aug 1939:

Territorial camp at East Boldre flooded out. 

Conran rang to say Mrs King Farlowe was offering the [Southampton] Art Gallery a Suddaby, and of course, one of hers as well. The first to be a gift from her and the second a gift from Rowland! She is a cough drop!

5th Sep 1939:

British planes dropped tons of leaflets on Germany

Had birthday tea for Father which he evidently enjoyed very much [His 72^nd birthday was on the 1^st Sept]

6th Sep 1939:

Mauretania and Aquitania etc are being painted dark grey. Everyone in Southampton carrying gas masks in cardboard cases (they look very silly)

Started to learn milking cows at King’s farm.

9th Sep 1939:

Saw Warwick Castle coming in after she had evaded submarines chasing her

11th Sep 1939:

Card from Nan Kivell saying he hopes the Contemporary Art Society will purchase the large ‘Antwerp’ (which he has never seen!)'

14th Sep 1939:

We motored up to London with ‘Antwerp’ and ‘Ouse at York’ to the Redfern Gallery. Nan Kivell didn’t think the former suitable for the Tate Gallery. So wants me to do another! and have my show in November as "no one else is having one” (had been scheduled for December)

As far as we can tell "another" Antwerp was never painted and it is the one mentioned that the Tate bought for their collection.

15th Sep 1939:

Southampton full of troops ready to leave for France.

They do not look happy.

16th Sep 1939:

Started digging air raid shelter in sunk garden. This is compulsory for schools, and as ours starts on Tuesday, something has to be done about it.

16th Sep 1939:

The Art Gallery is open again but the art school is closed. Could only give Mavis £1 for housekeeping.

18th Sep 1939:

Painting in the afternoon. Activities of Man.

10th Oct 1939:

A note from Pittsburgh USA saying my painting of Southampton was sold, and a cheque enclosed for $250 which is at present is about £61.14/- This painting (18x50) was done last December and seemed to be a beginning of a richer phase in my work.”

16th Oct 1939:

Finished painting of Dunkirk 40x50, a reminiscence of my trip up the Scheldt.

16th Nov 1939:

Went up to London to look after the Redfern Gallery for a few days, Nan Kivell having gone to Paris for the weekend.

18th Nov 1939:

. . . a magnificent letter from Sydney Schiff who visited my show on Wednesday. he is sure that I ought to go on painting with all my energy.

25th Dec 1939:

. . . letter from Wadsworth suggesting that I was the chap to do records of the war in painting, that is if I could square this with my pacifist views. He would mention my name in an influential quarter. Personally I am all for it, it not being war propaganda and provided I had a free hand.

8th Jan 1940:

Rationing starts today.

8th Jan 1940:

Making observations of scene of barrage balloons on Southampton Water . . . all to be done from memory owing to restrictions.

15th Jan 1940:

Amazing cold weather . . .  I do a round of some of the neighbours to see that their cisterns are not frozen up

16th Jan 1940:

Portrait of Mother(15x18). Finished on 26^th . Father a bit cool about it, he rather baulked at my putting the knitting in!

8th Feb 1940:

The school grows! Eleven pupils now, but still some away owing to epidemics which are rife.

10th Feb 1940:

Mavis's School

Worked all day removing the school room to the old studio.

28th Mar 1940:

Took Work Suspended, Skating Scene, Southampton Water in Wartime up to London for RA.

1st Apr 1940:

First commission from the Admiralty

Commissioned by the Admiralty for “a couple of pictures for £50 the pair, of fishing boats!”

[Whitby in Wartime (1940) and Robin Hood's Bay in Wartime (1940)]

9th Apr 1940:

Germany invaded Denmark and Norway

9th Apr 1940:

At Whitby looking at fishing boat . . .  one stuck on mud and great effort to free her.

11th Apr 1940:

At Whitby:

Made sketch of lighthouse on cliff. Sheepdog barked without stopping.

11th Apr 1940:

Walked to Robin Hood’s Bay. Bus back.

Rifles being doled out to men who took it somewhat as a joke.

1st May 1940:

Invitation from the British Council to send a painting to Amsterdam – one of 25 invited.

4th May 1940:

A letter from Nan Kivell saying I had just missed being made ARA, Ethel Walker being given priority because of her age.

4th May 1940:

A most eventful day! After having sold nothing for six months. 

Antwerp bought by Chantry Bequest (Tate) for 100 gns December, Work Suspended bought by Hull for 200gns.

14th May 1940:

Black Tuesday. Germans broken through French lines and got to the Channel ports

28th May 1940:

Southampton full of French soldiers from Dunkirk

The amazing achievement of evacuation by sea, 350,000 men, is without doubt one of the most incredible feats in history.

18th Jun 1940:

Dibden Church burnt out. Magazine blown up at Marchwood etc.
I was down all night at the Golfhouse on ARP duty.

22nd Jun 1940:

French having to make Armistice terms of the most shameful kind.

2nd Jul 1940:

National Gallery War Artists preview

Two of mine hung. Eric Ravilious comes out best of the lot . . .
Dickey said the committee were so pleased with the Whitby picture that they were sending me an extra 10 gns!

6th Jul 1940:

[6th July] The WAAC offer 50gns to paint Dunkirk Embarkation, even though Cundall already commissioned to do this subject.

[11th July] To the ministry to see about photos for the Dunkirk Picture. “Hardly any available.”

[17th] Started Evacuation from Dunkirk for MOI.

Finished 14^th August

23rd Jul 1940:

Dug up 42lbs of potatoes to make room for greens.

16th Aug 1940:

Crispin disturbed by gunfire so he and Grock are taken to Bramhall near Manchester (to the Vincents) [Mavis's family] till 30^thSeptember

25th Aug 1940:

Started “large” Dunkirk (40x60) later sold to Canadian War Museum for £260

7th Sep 1940:

Bombing of London started.

23rd Sep 1940:

While having a walk with Mavis on the Forest a German plane was hit over our heads by AA fire which looked very erratic. 2 fine streams of white smoke trailing for miles behind the plane which made off in the B’mth direction. It was too high to see but it got slower and slower, and we heard by the news later, crashed off the Needles

24th Sep 1940:

19 German planes bombing Southampton at lunch time
. . . could see the bombs dropping quite well. AA fire looked quite accurate but no planes brought down.
Our fighters not in evidence till nearly an hour later.

28th Sep 1940:

Redfern Gallery smashed a bit by the bomb which wrecked the top of Burlington Arcade. My Solent Fort was in the window . . . glass and frame smashed up, painting without a scratch!

8th Nov 1940:

[8th] Cycled down to Weymouth to get material for new painting of air battle over Portland. Started at 9.15. Got to Wimborne 12.30, that being 30 miles. But the next 32 miles took ages. Arrived at 5 o’ clock.

[9th] Called on Vice-admiral Drummond at Portland after much difficulty with the police . . . etc.

Cycled back on the 14th

20th Nov 1940:

Eric Gill reported dead after one operation, only 58.

24th Nov 1940:

Epstein’s autobiography comes out.

Levy family [shopkeepers in Southampton] staying a few nights

30th Nov 1940:

We said ‘Hares and Rabbits’ most carefully! Crispin behaved admirably. Southampton closed to the public.

30th Nov 1940:

Southampton closed to the public.

An air-raid started at 6.15pm and went on till 1am. Flares were dropped repeatedly and machine guns and pom poms fired tracers continually at them. Southampton seemed to be blazing. Much heavier bombs were dropped, at times lifting our floors. All the doors and windows rattling continuously. Many more guns in action, one mobile one very close to us. Both gas and electricity were off. Someone went around shouting “All clear” at 1.45am.

2nd Dec 1940:

Nightmare over Southampton. Rank Flour Mills ablaze and Civic Centre  badly knocked about . . . said to be unsafe and will have to be pulled down.

We could hear the roofs crashing in (even here) in Southampton.

Mr Levy went into town to find his shop and home gone . . . 

370 killed and wounded in the 2 raids

3rd Dec 1940:

Painted all day at Battle over Portland (finished on 15^th Jan 1941) ['Attack on a Convoy Seen from the Air" (1941)]

[unknown date]:

You’re above the cloud and you see things down through the cloud on the convoy off the Isle of Wight going up the Channel and being attacked also from the air. This is entirely a picture from imagination that I was asked to do. And when the RAF officials saw it they were so surprised that I had never been up in the air.

[unknown date]:

'HMS Resolution Returning to Portsmouth' (1941)

I did that large painting of the battleship coming into Portsmouth, which was one of the first things I worked on. The officers down at Portsmouth looked at it with a very critical eye. Some of them said ‘ I’m sure there weren’t quite so many brass hats as that on the bridge.’ Another chap said ‘yes there were, they were coming back from the Mediterranean.’ The only fault they could find with it was, one chap said ‘There’s a hatchway missing.’ So that really was very high praise indeed, I think.

1st Jan 1942:

. . . also a small painting (14x24) of the crew of a torpedoed tanker ship’s boat.

1st Jan 1942:

. . . finishing (30x50) the Rescue of Richard Ayres from the sea at the Lizard which took place on the first of March last year. The painting “has caused endless worry and is not satisfactory to me as a painting”.

[unknown date]:

The story behind The Rescue of a sailor on the Lizard

It was February so pretty cold. The boat ran onto some rocks in a cove on the Lizard. Two other men were too weak to swim or hold on.

‘He just managed to get to clinging to a rock. Fortunately some children who were going to school saw him. The farmer’s boy aged about fourteen or fifteen I think, said “All right sir, cling on, I’ll help you.’ He ran all the way back to he farm and carried a rope which must have been almost as heavy as himself along to the cliffs while the little girls were shouting encouragement. And he actually lassoed this man on the rocks there and helped him ashore. I saw the boy later and he said this chap began taking out a wallet with a photograph of his wife, and he was eventually taken to a hospital nearby. And the strange ending of the story is that he found that his wife and small child, may have been two children, were evacuated from Canterbury, which was his home, down there to the Lizard. He was given the British Empire medal.’

2nd Jan 1942:

. . . the distance gives great trouble as it is apt to interfere with the drama in the foreground.

8th Jan 1942:

To London with a couple of pictures on top of the car for Redfern. Went to the War Artist Show at National Gallery.

My large Dunkirk looked frightful, made me feel quite sick. The Convoy from the Air looked none too bad.

10th Jan 1942:

In the evening played at Guess What Tune This Is with Crispin. I was astonished at the number of tunes he knew.

11th Jan 1942:

Russians pushing back German forces around Moscow.

Rommel looks as if he may get back to Tripoli.

14th Jan 1942:

Letter from the Admiralty asking me to take part in a scheme tutoring seamen in their spare time, to paint.

16th Jan 1942:

American fleet . . .  have sunk and damaged Japanese ships

19th Jan 1942:

Letter from the Admiralty to say the trawler and Heinkel picture had been withdrawn from Exhibition as it had a vital secret in it! Would I paint it out? As they would like the painting to go to South Africa.

The painting Trawler Against Heinkel (1941) was eventually passed and sent to Brazil along with several others of his and other war artists as a thank you to Brazil for becoming an ally in the war. However the ship carrying them there was torpedoed and all the works were lost at sea.

23rd Jan 1942:

General Rommel in Libya has started to attack agin. He must be a bit of a lad!

Death of Richard Sickert announced. Certainly a fine painter and a most interesting personality.

24th Jan 1942:

Report in the papers that a cattle ranch is going to be tried out in the Beaulieu district.

27th Jan 1942:

Talked again to Nan Kivell about the possibility of buying a Kit Wood painting. Suggested I should come up again in a month’s time.

27th Jan 1942:

Talk with Nan Kivell

I am so dissatisfied with [my work]. He thinks I am unconsciously trying to emulate certain broad characteristics of other painters and not sticking to the delineation which is my forte. I believe there is a lot in what he says.

[unknown date]:

A Bouncy hefty daughter was born about 1.30 this morning…. Talk about excitement! I thumped Grock telling him it was a girl, but he was not impressed!”

13th Feb 1942:

42 planes lost

13th Feb 1942:

Stretched canvas and prepared with ground 30x50 for the Portsmouth subject of “Revenge” leaving after bombardment.

19th Feb 1942:

Nan Kivell says he would be pleased to be godfather to Caroline

[unknown date]:

The Vaagso raid was a very quiet affair. I can’t remember a great deal about it. I was given full details about this stealing up through the fjords in Norway to destroy certain enemy installations. I don’t understand the technical side of it, but the Germans were making heavy water whatever that may be, something apparently very dangerous up in Norway. And they wanted to destroy this affair. This painting was very much liked by people who had taken part in the raid which rather surprised me.

21st Apr 1942:

Caroline’s christening in the house… Vivien godmother. Mr Pope conducted the ceremony with his usual quietness and benevolence.

[unknown date]:

Telegram from Marcantonio a model congratulating him…. A tradition to give him a guinea.

12th May 1942:

ARA ceremony. “Old Lutyens looked a bit motheaten” “Bought book on Catalan Art to celebrate the occasion.”

12th May 1942:

First to Redfern Gallery to discuss what to send to the Russian Show at the Wallace Collection.

15th May 1942:

15 May

Started Portsmouth night bombing picture (30x50). This is going to be the hell of a job, and no mistake, and will certainly take some weeks.

28 June

After much crosstalk and criticizing etc. etc., we decided that the ‘Portsmouth Night Raid’ painting must be considered finished.

20 August

Portsmouth picture won’t pass the censor at present. Damn it!

28th May 1942:

Nan Kivell sent a funny old painting for Crispin.

28th May 1942:

To London: Press Day at new room, of War Artists’ pictures. My painting of the ‘Ayres Rescue’ looks better than I had hoped and attracted a good deal of attention. Photo of me standing by it!

1st Jun 1942:

On the way home [from West Moors] called at ‘Blinkbonnie’ in Ringwood ….. We hope to send Crispin there in September.

11th Jun 1942:

Painting hard all day. Short break at noon to give Crispin his carpentry lesson. Caroline going on fine. She responds to all sorts of fun now and Crispin seems to be a favourite with her.

22nd Jun 1942:

Attended first RA general meeting.

Nevinson sat at the back in state giving vent to ironical “Hear Hears” or “Chuck him out!”. Dugdale pompous about his ability to hang a show and careful underlining that he isn’t concerned about his pictures, they would look after themselves.

23rd Jun 1942:

Rex gave me another picture of rabbits for Crispin.

27th Jun 1942:

While having tea on the side lawn, Mavis had Caroline on her knee. Suddenly her face crumpled up and she started howling. We couldn’t think what was the matter, and then realised that Crispin with his bike and Toby the bear on it had vanished behind our chairs. So we asked him to come back, and immediately she beamed broad smiles and laughed and jumped up and down. Crispin then pedalled out of sight and she started howling again!

28th Jun 1942:

After much crosstalk and criticizing etc. etc., we decided that the ‘Portsmouth Night Raid’ painting must be considered finished. It was started on the 15^th May.

30th Jun 1942:

Letter from Thomas da Sancha wanting to see me concerning my war pictures. He is writing the introduction to a catalogue for Latin America.

This is a reference to the exhibition planned for Brazil. The exhibition did not take place, however, because all the pictures were lost at sea when the ship taking them there was torpedoed.

3rd Jul 1942:

Kenneth Clark's dinner for Dickey’s retirement as secretary to the War Artists’ Committee.

. . . I enjoyed it all thoroughly.

9th Jul 1942:

Tirpitz torpedoed. 

. . . Let’s hope it will be put out of action for a bit.

18th Jul 1942:

Began again after 2yrs the Two Bridges at low tide (24x42)

8th Aug 1942:

A charming letter from Gleadowe from the Admiralty saying how pleased the war artists’ committee are with the three latest paintings (Portsmouth Blitz, Vaagso, and Rescue of Shipwrecked Crew by Destroyer) and that if I had heard the remarks made I would be most encouraged, and they consider themselves lucky to have such a painter. So this is good news after a day of profound depression. I am considering painting a head of Mozart on an old cupboard panel . . .

11th Aug 1942:

"Head of Enver" by Epstein for Mavis’ 35^th birthday for £75 . . . looks magnificent. We are lucky to have it.

29th Aug 1942:

Busy on the Prodigal Son transcription on old table top. After Rembrandt’s picture in the Hermitage. To be called “Meditation on a theme of Rembrandt” [but became known as "The Prodigal Son, after Rembrandt", the title in the Redfern catalogue.]

11th Sep 1942:

Spent some hours going over Dieppe maps and operations

13th Sep 1942:

Taking a busman’s holiday and painting a few small works for the Redfern and my own edification.

2nd Oct 1942:

Prepared large panel for “Dieppe” three-ply, 4ft x nearly 6ft.(Finished 25^th March, 1943)

10th Oct 1942:

Stalingrad still holding out after about 6 weeks’ fighting.

A complicated situation has arisen with regard to the treatment of prisoners of war.

[unknown date]:

Started painting a little head of a Refugee who has been through internment camps. 12x8 app [Refugee (1942)]

12th Oct 1942:

Crispin off back to boarding school…‘ Crispin was very brave and I hope will settle down alright at school, otherwise I am afraid he can’t come home for weekends.

20th Oct 1942:

Started small painting of Grock on wood, had to stop because of poor light.

22nd Oct 1942:

War paintings at National Gallery:

My painting of ‘Vaagso’ and ‘Destroyer Rescuing Shipwrecked Crew’ were hung between Henry Moore’s Coal Mine drawings so they looked rather well. Sir Kenneth Clark asked me how I liked the hanging. Had my photo taken by the press in front of Vaagso.

Took two new heads (clown in Home Guard, and Jew from Dachau) to Redfern. They were liked very much.

25th Oct 1942:

25 Oct

Started a small painting from one of Wadsworth’s pictures, making alterations where I feel like it. [The Hammock (1942)]

27 Oct

Finished the ‘Wadsworth’ picture. I wonder what he will think of my ‘improvements’.

28th Oct 1942:

Details of new mosquito bomber out today. The surprising thing . . . is its wood construction.

10th Jan 1943:

Crispin had adenoids and tonsils out.

17th Jan 1943:

Rommel has retreated 50 miles in Tripolitania.

Started Crispin off on learning chess.

18th Jan 1943:

The 16 month Siege of Leningrad is raised.

This must be one of the most triumphant stands in history!

21st Jan 1943:

Graham Sutherland show (at the National Gallery?)

. . . paintings of the mines which are magnificent. One of a miner coming out of a mine with another shaft underneath was astounding.

11th Feb 1943:

Churchill’s statement in the Commons with regard to the Casablanca conference. He seems to think the U-boat menace, great as it is, should not be exaggerated, can only delay the final victory.

11th Feb 1943:

Worked a bit on Revenge leaving Portsmouth. Probably finished.

Someone wants me to paint a dog like Grock. What next? kittens? [He had already painted Grock his dalmation]

31st Mar 1943:

To Admiralty

Dieppe Landing (48x68), HMS Revenge leaving Portsmouth (30x50), MGBs Attacking at Night (13x30), Survivors on Upturned Boat(14x24)

To Redfern

Yorks. Landscape with Waterfall (13x19), Sewing Box with Caroline’s Photo (12x14), Nude with Cat (12x16), Yorks. Coast Scene, Evening (7x16), Swans at Abbotsbury (12x13 1/2), Fisherman (or ‘men’?) Landing Coble (10x14), Crucifix (61/2x10).

31st Mar 1943:

Framing is a problem as professional framing is not allowed. So I am either cutting old ones down, or making them out of odds and ends of scrap wood from the Power Boat Co.

2nd Apr 1943:

Rex N.K. thought the ‘Dieppe’ should go to the RA so phoned up about getting frame cut down [during the War, frame-making was not allowed] and let the Censor see it and get it delivered on Monday.

2nd Apr 1943:

Took large Dieppe painting, and a number of others up to London on [the roof of!] the car.

22nd Apr 1943:

. . . went to the RA and saw the hanging.’Dieppe’ is hung and framed well, and looks better than I expected it to look. Everyone is in a good humour. Was introduced to Laura Knight, L. Birch, Harold Knight etc. Found Laura more pleasant than I expected her to be.

23rd Apr 1943:

RA Elections

We had a terrific struggle to keep James Gunn out . . . we managed to get Wadsworth and Edward Le Bas elected . . . The winking and back-slapping at the back was entertaining.

30th Apr 1943:

Preview at the Royal Academy

Met and chatted to all sorts of people. Kelly says he wants the Chantry Bequest to buy Port Musgrave. John Rothenstein supports this.

[unknown date]:

Dieppe

It's full of fireworks, bombs cropping in the water and whatnot. I had a very curious sensation when I was doing this because I always remembered - it may seem rather far-fetched - the opera ‘The Magic Flute’ of Mozart in which the hero has to go through fire and water before he’s allowed to see his bride. And this effect, a sort of architectural feeling of fire and water, and only very much in the distance can you see anything happening on the land in Dieppe.

3rd May 1943:

Press Cuttings about the RA show

The Times thinks Dieppe highly romanticized. The Observer (Osbert Lancaster) thinks it would gain in impressiveness if it was half the size and a steel engraving. Some engraving!

4th May 1943:

Planning Great North African Convoy. (30x50)

Only £5 in hand . . .

5th May 1943:

The six two month old pullets arrived and got them into their quarters safely.

11th May 1943:

In the afternoon a landing craft of perhaps 2.000 tons did some rehearsals on Weymouth beach. Looking like a huge Bruegel whale  disgorging vehicles. I have not seen one of such size before. MTBs and GBs buzzing about flaunting their plumes.

12th May 1943:

All organized resistance has ceased in Tunisia

a truly remarkable and astonishing campaign

17th May 1943:

Attack by the RAF on 2 large dams in Germany

17th May 1943:

making decisions over a 2^nd version of the North African Convoy

18th May 1943:

Father in a difficult mood, something between a bear and a spoilt child. It must be very trying for Mother.

1st Jun 1943:

Elected a member of the New English Art Club

I hope this club will improve its standards and encourage the younger generation.

9th Jul 1943:

Started painting of German merchant vessel on fire off Dutch coast (30x40)

It may prove rather exciting.

13th Jul 1943:

I made bases for puppet heads to be fixed to for the show being organised at Harpenden of work by past and present Georgians [Richard's old boarding school].

17th Jul 1943:

Harpenden show opened by Sir Kenneth Clark

A good crowd there . . . a chap called Heron with his CO [consciencious objector] son, a painter, watching the cricket match. [The son was the painter Patrick Heron]

19th Jul 1943:

Travelled to Harwich and joined Lt Keddie on board the Cattistock. To Sheerness. HMS Nigeria arrived there. Later sailed to join as escort a convoy of 20 ships. Arrived at Portsmouth where he joined a coaster and back on land caught the train home.

12th Aug 1943:

Opening of new room at National Gallery.

Met Anthony Gross for 1^st time.

On to Dorking to see Schiff who gave him his translation of the last volume of the Proust twelve volume novel [which had been left incomplete following the early death of Scott Moncrieff]

14th Aug 1943:

Vivien [Mavis's oldest friend] told by police she has to leave . . . this is a restricted area, no visitors.

16th Aug 1943:

Raid last night. 6 out of 25 planes brought down

Began picking apples, a good crop.

18th Aug 1943:

A lot of unpleasantness in the press over Russia not being represented at the talks in Quebec.

[Old family friend] Nellie (working at Netley hospital)came over on ferry showing her military identity card to gain admittance.

31st Aug 1943:

To Admiral Pipon at Southampton for a pass to the docks

Wandered round Portsmouth docks:

. . . at least half a dozen submarines being repaired, a destroyer and cruiser of Leander class in dry dock. Many small craft too.

8th Sep 1943:

Italy has surrendered unconditionally (actually on the 3^rd but not made public on the day)

16th Sep 1943:

Caroline furious because she can’t ride a tricycle!

23rd Sep 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.

24th Sep 1943:

Caroline feeding herself with a spoon, not bad, but is furious if we try to help her.

7th Oct 1943:

Worked seven hours on Convoy picture (30x50).

8th Oct 1943:

Russians have crossed the Dneiper in 3 places and announce an offensive on the whole front!

16th Oct 1943:

Started painting of brandy glass (containing ginger wine) and four apples (Finished on the 18^th)

22nd Oct 1943:

Private View of the NEAC

By far the best picture was “The Dream” by Evelyn Dunbar

27th Oct 1943:

27 October

Painted small picture of red engine in a country station for Paul Bielby for Christmas. A great success with Crispin who says it is the best painting I have done. This gives rise to an idea. Throughout the winter it would be a good corrective to paint a number of small paintings for children, and suggest a show at the Redfern Gallery.

5 November

Painting small picture. The Gentle Okapi.

7 November

Painting ‘Lullaby my Sweet Little Baby’ and finished ‘Teddybear at the Dinner Table’.

3rd Nov 1943:

Went up to London to the cocktail party to meet some American painters. Quite enjoyable. The Americans knew my first Dunkirk painting very well. They were much amused at Sir Kenneth Clark telling them I painted all my war pictures never having seen anything.

11th Nov 1943:

Went up to meet Canadian War Artists at Vincent Massey’s flat at the Dorchester Hotel. Had a good time there. Mrs Massey a charming woman. Pitchforth, Lamb and Barnett Freedman there . . . 

12th Nov 1943:

We decided we will have another baby. Mavis wants another girl. She says she gets a bit tired of tanks.

1st Jan 1944:

Sir Edwin Lutyens died. Sir Edward Maufe said he is ‘the greatest architect since Wren.’

1st Jan 1944:

Painting ‘Fortresses over Southampton’ (30x40)

3rd Jan 1944:

Started ‘Bombardment of Salerno’ by battleships Howe and George V (30x50) High key and bright colour

[unknown date]:

Bombardment at Salerno

Well, it was when the allied forces were landing in south Italy that a covering bombardment from the sea was made by capital ships: they asked me would I try to do it.

This is a very difficult thing because bombardments like that take [place over] so many miles that not very much was visible actually. But I did something imaginative with it. When the shell left the guns of the ship, the vacuum caused by the shell going through the air may have been invisible, I don’t know, but I tried to make something of it.

7th Jan 1944:

Had a nice letter from Victor Pasmore congratulating me on my ‘Portsmouth (with Revenge leaving)’. I am rather surprised at this.

13th Feb 1944:

Decided on St George’s [Richard's old boarding School] as a school for Crispin. (Béchervaise is headmaster)

29th Feb 1944:

Saw Rex at the Redfern . .  I showed him some of the paintings for children, he likes them but doesn’t want them at the Gallery as they would only sell!

29th Feb 1944:

Dennis Brain playing the horn in Brahms Horn Trio at NG lunch time concert

RA elections

Gerald Kelly said he had bought little thatching picture and had hung it at the Churchill Club.

Edward Maufe said he had bought my painting of Mousehole done a couple of years ago.

2nd Mar 1944:

National Gallery exhibition of paintings by war artists.

Had quite a talk with Sir Kenneth Clark who was more affable than usual, said he liked my work and he said how much he liked my painting of ‘Grock’ and the prodigal son transcription. Sutherland and his wife there, had a chat with them . . . 

A curious coincidence: at Zwemmers' [art book shop] to pay for ‘How to Draw Ships’ for Jasper Kay, found John Kay there purchasing ‘How to Draw Horses for Shirley!’ [John Kay, husband of Richard's sister Guendolen]

30th Mar 1944:

Worked all day to finish the painting of the wreck of the Herzogin Cecilie (30x40) Want to send it to the RA.

31st Mar 1944:

To London with ‘Bombardment of Salerno’, ‘Fortresses over Southampton’, to Admiralty. ‘Night Raid on Portsmouth’ to the RA. Tried to find frame for ‘Cecilie’

8th Apr 1944:

The coastal ban comes into force tonight. [in anticipation of D-Day preparations]

20th Apr 1944:

RA elections

We spiked Gunn with a Spear!

26th Apr 1944:

2 raids in the night, the 2^nd one seemed to be over Portsmouth. Heavy firing and some thuds which shook the house violently, evidently bombs. Fortunately the children slept through it and we did not take them downstairs.

28th Apr 1944:

RA  Private View

Went up with Mavis. Spoke to Laura Knight, Kelly, Frank Dobson, LeBas , Gooden etc.

Taxi to catch the last ferry which now goes from the floating bridge.

2nd May 1944:

Crispin to St George’s

except for a short argument at the gate and a few tears I think all was well.

5th May 1944:

The 2 battleships Revenge and Resolution left the new docks this afternoon after having been there several months

19th May 1944:

Still working on the painting of the torpedoing of the Tirpitz

22nd May 1944:

To Selsey with Commanders Kimmins and Moore to see the subject to be painted: Mulberry Harbour for the landings in Normandy.

[unknown date]:

. . . That is the Mulberry harbour being assembled at Southsea Bill, prior to D-Day which took place about a fortnight after I was down there. It was very interesting. They wouldn’t tell me what it was for, but they took me out in a duck. It was most extraordinary. It was like a lot of factories standing up out of the water. I had some pretty plain idea what it was. And it was eventually towed across to Normandy of course, where it became an artificial harbour for our landing craft to go into to land. It was certainly one of the most extraordinary things of the war.

4th Jun 1944:

Mavis to have taken Mrs Garraway to hospital today, but she had gassed herself. She left a note: apparently had thought of this way out before.

5th Jun 1944:

Rome has fallen to us today.

6th Jun 1944:

Started work on Invasion Preparations (30x50) Everything very quiet here! No restrictions.

12th Jun 1944:

Churchill visited France for the 1^st time in 4 years to the day. Germans in Italy in full retreat. Russian offensive on the Finnish Front . . .

12th Jun 1944:

Working all day. Eyes none too good.

16th Jun 1944:

Germans starting to use pilotless aircraft

16th Jun 1944:

Painting all day.

22nd Jun 1944:

Sent off Toby the bear to Crispin (Béchervaise said he could have him)

24th Jun 1944:

Doodlebug attack at 6.30 in the morning:

I got up to see if I could see it, but couldn’t. Then the engine cut out! So I got away from the windows. There was a hell of a loud crack, not a crump, and looking out saw smoke rising somewhere in the Dibden fields direction. No windows broken with us, but other people have. But my studio door blown open even though locked, and one window which was latched, and things lying about all over the shop. It seems the studio must have been lifted up in the middle as the lock was not wrenched. The larder door blown open, and the window which was open, shut!

26th Jun 1944:

Moved Caroline’s cot to under the stairs as there are so many alerts . . .

Painting all day but tired from lack of sleep.

Rain after long drought!

1st Jul 1944:

Mavis made the grueling journey to visit Crispin who “is doing very nicely.”

10th Jul 1944:

Caen has been captured. Vilna reached by the Russians.

12th Jul 1944:

Commander Dillon Robertson advised Richard to stay on an ammunition ship in Portsmouth as the only way to get to Normandy (‘what! with doodle bugs about!’) Went on one of the ships in the Solent.

13th Jul 1944:

Spent night on HMS Enterprise. Captain Groves very helpful with regard to the bombardment on D-Day etc.

13th Jul 1944:

'D-Day, Reconstruction' triptych

. . .  it’s very difficult to do a thing of D-Day. I made a sort of triptych of it. The centre portion is about 9 feet and depicts men running ashore on Normandy beach. And the side pictures which are smaller, though the depth is the same, depict a bombardment from the sea, the initial bombardment which covered the landing, and the one the other side is the destruction of Caen and places like that, which had to be unfortunately, for the troops to make an advance and to liberate Paris.

[unknown date]:

Towards the end of the war Richard was on a destroyer which was escorting troops possibly into Boulogne.

But the seas were so terrible the captain of the destroyer . . .  couldn’t get the troops in and they had to anchor off the downs in very rough weather. 

Richard was the only one not seasick.

I was up early and went down into the galley where we had our breakfast and the steward said  . . . 'Do you think you could possibly take a cup of coffee to the captain who’s up on the bridge?’ I said ‘Well, I’ll certainly try.'

I wondered . . . how on earth can I keep this from spilling? Anyway I climbed up ladders and got onto the deck and had to hold onto the rattling lines. And I’d still got this cup of coffee which was full when I got to the top.

. . . the door opened of the chart room where the captain was with his batman. And I said ‘Here’s a cup of coffee for you sir.’ And the batman took it and immediately spilt it all over the charts.

I didn’t take another cup of coffee up, I thought it was enough.

25th Jul 1944:

Brought Crispin back home (end of term)

8th Aug 1944:

Crispin has chicken pox!

20th Aug 1944:

Went on board HMS Vanquisher for the night. All very matey and pleasant. A lot of conversation.

21st Aug 1944:

Went out in ship’s motor boat to look at the ship with a view to painting her for her captain.

23rd Aug 1944:

Paris liberated

. . . all Frenchmen must be feeling grand, particularly as they themselves have achieved it and are doing wonders in their uprising all over France.

1945:

Offered a private commission which led to several others after the war

Suddenly, when I was still in uniform I got a telegram saying a Colonel Astor from The Times wanted to see me. At his London office he said, 'The Old Etonians very much want to have a painting made. You know . . . that recently King George VI knighted the Provost of Eton on the chapel steps? And we rather thought that we would like a painting of this performance. I’m sorry that you weren’t there and we didn’t think of it before. But we wondered whether you could do it.

I said, 'Yes, well certainly it would be all right. And what sort of facilities could be given to me?’ And he said ‘Well, you can go down to Eton. I will give you a note to the provost and he will be awfully nice to you - that’s Sir Henry Marten.’ And I discovered that he was being knighted because he was the tutor to our present Queen, who was then Princess Elizabeth. He was very nice to me. And he showed me the windows where I could go up and get the best view to make drawings which I have still. But of course I had to do a lot from imagination.

8th May 1945:

VE Day - Victory in Europe - the end of the war with Germany.

2nd Sep 1945:

End of the war with Japan.

1st Jan 1946:

1 January

Painting Eton College picture (40x50) Knighting of the Provost by the King on the chapel steps. The architecture has occupied me for 2 months. Started on the statue today.

1st Jan 1946:

1^st of a dozen lessons to the Cameron boys at Butts Ash.

2nd Jan 1946:

Cheque arrives for 12 gns from BBC for his talk in November on the  Northern Programme for the series”Born and Bred”.

Painting all day . . . very cold in outside studio.

3rd Jan 1946:

Vivien Cutting and Mavis went into Southampton to shop, but found them quite denuded. There seems to be nothing to buy at all.

3rd Jan 1946:

Painting the figures in Eton picture

so now have a couple of months of hard labour in front of me.

4th Jan 1946:

Painting in the morning. In the afternoon made a start making Crispin’s ERF lorry (all wood). We differed a great deal as to how it should be made! Which makes progress somewhat slow.

5th Jan 1946:

In the afternoon went on with the lorry, but didn’t get far. We first tried making mudguards from coffee tins and found it unsatisfactory. So then steamed some very thin 3-ply and will hope for the best.

5th Jan 1946:

Cracknore Hard to see shipping

3 aircraft carriers, a large American liner and Île de France etc

5th Jan 1946:

Eton painting

Started the figures below the chapel, they are going to be a terrific job.

12th Jan 1946:

Finished making a wooden ERF lorry for Crispin. Made a trailer for it the next day.

12th Jan 1946:

Eton painting

put in the boys hanging on to the railings round the statue.

[unknown date]:

Eton painting

I introduced quite a number of humorous things in it, like a small boy with a catapult in the front row, for instance, who was being restrained by some other boys, and one or two Etonian hats that were being knocked off. None of this was objected to, I’m very glad to say, by the officials or Royalty.

17th Jan 1946:

Stopped at Eton to look at my subject. Mavis remarked that it looked ‘older’ than in my painting. I feel this too. The job of getting the old weathered feeling from memory is difficult. Perhaps I have got it a bit on the hot side.

17th Jan 1946:

Taking Crispin back to St George’s.

21st Jan 1946:

Reading ‘The Small Back Room’ by Nigel Balchin.

22nd Jan 1946:

Mavis to Dibden as she is the Welfare Officer for the Landgirls.

Crispin’s letter: has settled down. The boys liked his lorry and he gave a magic lantern show.

22nd Jan 1946:

Sir Henry Marten Provost of Eton ready for a sitting 

23rd Jan 1946:

New Penguin books on Pasmore and Burra came.

I am sorry that Clive Bell wrote on Pasmore, it is shockingly written and stupid throughout. One or two of the paintings are splendid.

John Rothenstein writes a very good foreword on Burra. I think some of these paintings are magnificent, and others full of mannerisms and cheapness. But he certainly is a remarkable chap.

29th Jan 1946:

Depressed, as the perspective in the Eton picture appears incurably wrong, partly owing to the crushing together of the actual perspective. The large uninteresting space in the foreground looks like being troublesome too.

30th Jan 1946:

Letter from Kenneth Harrison, Don of King's College Cambridge asking me to go and paint for him 2 moderate size pictures in the Summer for 400gns!

These funny surprises always get under my ribs. I still can’t understand anyone wanting to part with filthy lucre for my paintings, particularly on such a scale.

31st Jan 1946:

Oliver Warner at the Admiralty asks him to see him about a commission to do “The Painted Hall” at Greenwich.

I feel now that I shall have to refuse this commission.

Thought of another painting I would like to do “The Man with a Sword” full-length nude.

5th Feb 1946:

The garden needs some thought.

The Food crisis in the world seems to call for more effort than hitherto, and yet people don’t seem to be making it.

5th Feb 1946:

Another letter from K. Harrison saying if I wanted to spread myself he might go to 500 gns!”

9th Feb 1946:

Caroline’s 4^th birthday tea with 4 other children.

I found afterwards that Mavis had been balancing lighted candles on her upper lip to amuse the kids!

10th Feb 1946:

A fox has got two of our hens, curse it!

11th Feb 1946:

Letter from Crispin

. . . he enclosed some funny drawings for Caroline. And a splendid one of two boys with the parts of a lorry in a field, hens and garage and trees etc. all most convincing. It is an illustration to a story we are writing.

19th Feb 1946:

To Eton - boys just coming out of chapel and the provost still having breakfast

Couple of hours working at windows of upper school. Saw hoods and cassocks for colour and made a sketch of the provost himself.

21st Feb 1946:

Painting foreground of Eton picture. This space is difficult to fill with nothing but dull colour and texture.

22nd Feb 1946:

Started painting the figures on the chapel steps, starting at the top. It seems almost impossible to make portraits from such tiny photographs. It looks as though Indian Red will just about meet the requirements of the cassocks against the grey stone.

1st Mar 1946:

Got down to working on the King in the Eton picture. Got in a mess with it.

3rd Mar 1946:

got into a mess trying to portray the Provost. Can’t get a likeness.

4th Mar 1946:

Anniversary of poor little Joanna’s death. Caroline still talks about her and it is very difficult to know what to say to her questions.

11th Mar 1946:

150 at the meeting in Hythe, many socialist gains. This meeting certainly showed a keen spirit which has never been before.

11th Mar 1946:

Working hard all day, it is going to be a race against time.

15th Mar 1946:

Went to see Constable show

I thought ‘Salisbury Cathedral from the Close’ really wonderful. I used to think it one of his failures.

Went to see Peter Grimes

. . . rather surprised at a grindstone being used as a capstan! Peter Pears singing magnificently.

16th Mar 1946:

Ensor show at National Gallery

. . . disappointing. He seems to have no constructive power. The paintings are also in very poor condition too.

Old Masters

The Death of Procris as good as ever, and Jan Steen knocks Vermeer into a cocked hat. De Hooch so good also. The St Giles picture still one of my favourites.

17th Mar 1946:

Called on Devas. Moyniham came in too.

18th Mar 1946:

'Cliffords Tower' sold at NEAC show

. . . thus upholding my record of selling something at every show there since I was elected member.

19th Mar 1946:

Got into a hell of a mess with painting the buttresses of Eton chapel. In fact the whole picture looks rather a mess today.

22nd Mar 1946:

Today decided to say ‘Finis’ to the Eton picture after six months of hard work

24th Mar 1946:

Painting seascape of storm breaking over a fishing village.

28th Mar 1946:

Painting in the morning on a 16x20 landscape (evening) begun some time ago.

31st Mar 1946:

Had a private view to a few neighbours of the Eton picture. Mrs Tetley said:

. . . and did you do it all yourself? !

1st Apr 1946:

Left Landscape with Barge to dry a bit.

Started again on Elephant picture.

Making drastic alterations, simplifying.

I find I may be too much occupied with technical problems and must broaden out. Try to get the feeling of wonder, how else can one expect to move a beholder if not moved oneself?

3rd Apr 1946:

Up to London by car

with the Eton picture on top, frame and all!

25th Apr 1946:

At the RA

The Eton picture well hung, but as usual looks small and spotty.

26th Apr 1946:

Electing ARAs.

I was amused at Rushbury standing over us ‘reds’, saying we couldn’t vote for Bawden. “He’ll never send any work in. Stanley was the same, and he pissed on us at the first opportunity."  

Queen Charlotte looked gravely down.

9th May 1946:

Richard had been persistently unwell for some time.

. . . [Dr Brierly] came today and had a good look at me. He seemed to think it was either my lungs or teeth or both. So I am to be x-rayed.

9th May 1946:

Started painting Escort-carrier with Rainbow (16x20) for George Barnes

10th May 1946:

Vincent Massey liked the Eton picture. Asks Richard

to paint Balliol College Oxford with all the men and women from the services who came and had short studies there during the War. We agreed on the price of £300 without frame.

13th May 1946:

x-rayed at Lyndhurst. Dr. Brierly thinks teeth had better come out.

17th May 1946:

Eton picture reproduced in this week’s ‘Listener’.

25th May 1946:

Camille Pisarro’s letters to his son

How I admire him at the age of 56 championing Seurat and changing his own style, and losing friends because of it. But he was right.

26th May 1946:

Started “The Man with a Sword” (50x30)

It is going to be a tough nut. Caroline asked if it was a Cave Man!

28th May 1946:

Mavis to London for meeting at Albert Hall of delegates for Women’s Institutes . . .  very good, not too parochial. The Queen was there.

1st Jun 1946:

Mayor of Westminster rang to ask him to do a painting of Churchill being given the freedom of the city of Westminster!

What next?! It doesn’t look a very interesting subject or setting, but something might well be made of it, and if well paid, may help to keep things going. (£400-£500!)

6th Jun 1946:

At Green & Stone (framer)

Found the missing ‘Abbotsbury’ (40x40) in their cellar. Took it to Nan Kivell, much damaged by war time flooding.

6th Jun 1946:

To see the Mayor of Westminster

The ceremony took place at Church House where UNO is sitting It might be interesting as it was by artificial light, warm and honey-coloured.

To Green and Stone asking them to carve some frames for me.

11th Jun 1946:

Crispin got 1st and 2nd prizes in an inter schools art exhibition.

One of the Queen Mary seen from the air and another of a lorry with a soldier standing by it. Another of an ERF lorry by a garage, all of them most excellent.’

11th Jun 1946:

Green and Stones for some old pictures and frames. Old one of Weymouth harbour (34x31) still looks good but I think I will repaint it.

14th Jun 1946:

Col. Astor approves Eton picture . . . how much do they owe?

I am writing for £500 to include frame and all expenses. I hope they won’t baulk at it.

20th Jun 1946:

Caroline has whooping cough

25th Jun 1946:

French Show at Lefevre Gallery, London. Met Pasmore there.

He likes the fluffy Renoir landscape and Delacroix. A magnificent Cezanne landscape and tulips in a vase. Two little Seurats which were excellent.

25th Jun 1946:

To Cambridge to look round the Colleges with K. Harrison and met Provost (he with the stick in Eton Picture)

28th Jun 1946:

Started 1^st Cambridge subject . . .   all on the spot in Cambridge it seems. [King's Cambridge Looking Eastwards from the Backs and Trinity College, The Wren Library and River Cam]

2nd Jul 1946:

. . . got down to the 2^nd subject on the river which has been worrying me for some time. I think I have solved the problem by blending 2 view points which will bring it into a longways canvas instead of an upright, which I didn’t want to do.
[King's Cambridge Looking Eastwards from the Backs and Trinity College, The Wren Library and River Cam]

3rd Jul 1946:

In Cambridge

A terrific thunderstorm late at night. A wonderful sight to see King's Chapel silhouetted against the sky with lightning, half the chapel being dimly lit by the lamp at the Porter’s Lodge streaking across the lawn. It only needed a mad organist playing some fantastic fugue by Liszt to complete the melodrama.’

3rd Jul 1946:

a large swan came buzzing over down on to the water in front of my subject this morning It was perfect, such a swoop and curve and stretch of wings.

6th Jul 1946:

To London to deliver framed escort carrier picture to G Barnes at the BBC.

24th Jul 1946:

[Two days] drawing at Oxford for Balliol picture. A hasty drawing of Lindsay (master of Balliol)

26th Jul 1946:

Motoring back from Balliol

Storms seem to be about, but did not pass through any myself. Later heard disastrous damage done to crops. The fates seem to be against food production in the most vital year of all time.

19th Sep 1946:

Staying with Kenneth Harrison at Cambridge for more drawing

23rd Sep 1946:

Motored back to London, having had a hairbreadth escape from a car coming towards me which seemed to be quite out of control.

First to Redfern with two unsatisfactory paintings to send to the NEAC. [Winter Seascape, Landscape Study]

They say they sent a painting for UNESCO, but I can’t think which one it is . . . [Hampshire Coastal Scene (1937)]

Then to Green and Stone to collect frames and stretchers. The new carrier on top of the car took these very well.

Saw many smashes and careless driving on the way back home. No wonder there are so many fatalities on the roads.

28th Sep 1946:

Painting all day up to 6pm on The Man with a Sword.

It is in an awful mess, but will have to peg away at it.

29th Sep 1946:

The BBC 3^rdProgramme started tonight . . .

29th Sep 1946:

Started a small painting of The Dreamer, a sleeping figure in a cornfield.(finished 2^nd October 1946)

30th Sep 1946:

Painting in the morning. In the afternoon had four more teeth out, including three front ones which were eaten away at the roots. I hope this will make a difference to my general health.

3rd Oct 1946:

Nellie [old family friend] brought pears and grapes

I was so taken with them that I had to start a still life painting of them right away.” (Finished on the 6^th October)

7th Oct 1946:

Nevinson died today.

7th Oct 1946:

London

Went to see about repairs that want doing to the “Three Bridges”. Found it was the rubbed parts which are intended to be there, and in any case someone has varnished it, so nothing could be done.

8th Oct 1946:

NEAC Jury: Lord Methuen, G. Spencer, W. Dring, Guthrie, E. White, Cheston and Cundall on jury.

About 2,000 paintings to look through, a poor lot of work

9th Oct 1946:

Saw Gwen John’s memorial show.

Henry Moore’s show mostly drawings.

the sculpture more like window dressing models than anything else.

11th Oct 1946:

Mavis gave her first lecture at Lymington on ‘Design in the Home.’

Had my first set of fake teeth in! It seems a mouthful! Hope to get used to it.

15th Oct 1946:

Bought a wooden ladder to sit on when painting large canvases. It saves having to stand which is tiring.

16th Oct 1946:

A talk on the radio, Schools programme, about the 'Queen Elizabeth' from the ship itself. They said ‘you will hear the siren’. It blew, and then a few seconds later I heard it again coming across the water from Southampton.

After lunch Mavis and I went down to Hythe to see her off on her maiden voyage as a passenger liner. About 1,000 people on Hythe Pier. Craft of all kinds about, and planes of every description, including a helicopter hovering around. It was a grand sight. She steamed out most majestically sounding her deep siren in salute. Molotov and Bevin & co are all on board.

24th Oct 1946:

Frames of Cambridge pictures to G and Stone to be gilded. [King's Cambridge Looking Eastwards from the Backs and Trinity College, The Wren Library and River Cam]

Lunch with Devas. Victor Pasmore there in strange clothes like this: [see drawing!]

My seascape (winter) had sold at NEAC for £75. It looked bad I thought.

Got the huge carved frame on the car at G & Stone and came home in the dark most of the way.

3rd Nov 1946:

Collected about a stone of acorns in the Noads for the hens. When crushed up they should help considerably as there is precious little to feed them on.

3rd Nov 1946:

We decided we would purchase a piece of land from David [Mavis' brother] up on the Forest where we hope to build a house eventually.

Nothing came of this.

4th Nov 1946:

Started work on the Churchill painting for Westminster. I think there is a lot to be learned from it. To get the glow of the soft artificial light will be an interesting problem.

5th Nov 1946:

Digging in the garden for a bit to get cabbages in. Feeling better than I have done for a couple of years. The food shortage is going to be a problem more than ever.

30th Nov 1946:

With Mavis to the presentation of Knighting of Provost by old Etonians to the College. Sir Oliver Leese speech. Sir Jasper Ridley there and others. The “river overflowing and Eton practically cut off.”

2nd Dec 1946:

To Mayor of Westminster’s secretary for details for the picture of Churchill. Then to RA to see The King’s Pictures.

3rd Dec 1946:

Heard from Mariele [Maria Prinke, Richard's cousin] in Germany about terrible food shortage.

1st Jan 1947:

3 January

This day finds me still working and cursing over the two Cambridge pictures. [King's Cambridge Looking Eastwards from the Backs and Trinity College, The Wren Library and River Cam]

4 January

Still painting and cursing.

2nd Jan 1947:

Caroline’s party went quite well, but only a dozen small children make me wonder whether Heaven isn’t Hell.

12th Jan 1947:

Crispin staying with the Popes [Mavis' parents].

He told [Mrs Pope] indignantly that Caroline never did any housework! This being particularly amusing when one considers what he does!

17th Jan 1947:

In Cambridge

Had the grand experience of playing the organ of King’s College Chapel for two and a half hours (Buxtehude, Bach and Brahms).

17th Jan 1947:

K Harrison delighted with the two pictures and discussing another of the chapel by candlelight for next winter (£300)

22nd Feb 1947:

Have been painting snow scene during the last week, a memory of Pateley Bridge and round about. Hope to finish it later, but hardly feel it will be done in time for the RA

24th Feb 1947:

Weather is still punishing cold. This is the longest spell we have had in living memory. What with electricity cuts and gas and coal shortage, it makes things difficult.

4th Mar 1947:

2^nd anniversary of the death of poor Joanna [their daughter who died aged three months].

4th Mar 1947:

A bouncing daughter born at 10.30 am. She looks mature and hefty, the sort get to the front of the queue, put her foot in the door and get what she wants! . . . She looks a regular gorilla, puce coloured!

19th Mar 1947:

The floods in the Fens and other places are the worst in memory. The farmers say there will be no harvest this year if the water can’t be pumped away by mid-April.

23rd Mar 1947:

Digging the potato patch in the evening, Caroline on the swing keeping up conversation.

What has happened to the head of the statue? - I know, I suspect the fox took it when he got two of our hens!

28th Mar 1947:

Finished Churchill picture (33x44)

Very far from satisfied with it. Improvements would be wings sprouting from the little reporter on the right, turning him into the Recording Angel! And a few skeletons and skulls and other paraphernalia about.

29th Mar 1947:

Worked on Nightingale picture

31st Mar 1947:

. . . up to London by car with the Churchill picture. To Mr Keeling’s house . . .  Mrs K quite intelligent and everyone seemed to like it very much. He wants a duplicate to be made to have in his dining room and to have dinners under it.

15th Apr 1947:

The Queen Elizabeth stuck on the Brambles shingle off Calshot.

We went in the evening and witnessed the tugs getting her off after this morning’s attempt had failed. A grand sight, the fog coming on just as she got off.

20th Apr 1947:

Started painting on the Northern Landscape again [Northern Landscape (1947-68-75)]

24th Apr 1947:

RA elections

We managed to get Robert Buhler in which seems a good thing. I went to his house and left a note. Later saw him outside Chelsea Arts Club after Moynihan and others had been plying him with drink.

We then elected Bawden ARA. Munnings was livid.

11th May 1947:

Have been working on several small and started larger versions of paintings: Baptism, Harlequin, Refugee, Mother and Child, Drowning Man, The Nightingale,Man Asleep in Cornfield.

13th May 1947:

Someone is kicking up a fuss about their portraits in the Churchill picture. Keeling has been writing round telling people I will give them sittings to improve their likeness!

We have come to the conclusion that the portrait of Capes the mace-bearer has stolen the picture and that is the annoyance caused to the other sitters

15th May 1947:

Telegram from Nan Kivell saying there was an offer of £75 for the `Continental Port ‘ (40x50). I decided to accept this if he consented as the picture has been everywhere and we must get rid of it.

17th May 1947:

Had a dream that I took the robin’s eggs that are in the garage nest out, and found they were stamped:   ‘Robin-a-Thrush & Co.’

1st Jun 1947:

Started to paint a woman with baby in a field of buttercups. Have decided to paint what I like at weekends.

5th Jun 1947:

Cooler today. Yesterday the hottest ever. Got two food parcels off to Germany.

5th Jun 1947:

Crispin ill with ear infection at St George’s. Lasted until the 9th.

15th Jun 1947:

Crispin had earache all day . . . so Dr Walker came along to give an injection. [But Crispin was allergic to the penicillin]

15th Jun 1947:

Crispin sick! all over the bedclothes. I worked for hours on the girl in the buttercup meadow trying to keep it light.

17th Jun 1947:

Crispin much better. We went to Lyndhurst to get emergency card on his ration book.

18th Jun 1947:

Oxford to draw J N Bryson for Balliol picture.

15th Jul 1947:

Took Mother to York (to live) dropping Crispin at Harpenden on the way.

21st Jul 1947:

Moved my painting gear into the schoolroom as it is far too hot in the studio.

4th Sep 1947:

Mavis fell from loft and broke her elbow very badly. Stayed in hospital till the 10^th Sept. Caroline to Ashcrofts, Philippa to Meg. Crispin stayed at home.

20th Sep 1947:

Completed paintings this week:

Northern Landscape(28x36)
The Dreamer (cornfield) (24x32)
repainted Herzogin Cecilie (30x40)

25th Sep 1947:

London for portrait drawings. (Churchill improvements.)

27th Sep 1947:

Painted all day in the RA Schools and next morning. [We wonder if Richard had managed to have the Churchill painting moved to the RA Schools premises so he could do the repainting in London]

6th Oct 1947:

Varnished Churchill picture . . .

Delivered the painting to Westminster Hall the next day

8th Oct 1947:

Mavis went to Newtown to be with Vivien [her oldest friend] whose Mother was dying . . . stayed till the 15th!

[We are not sure what happened to us children. And then they obviously met up in London as they went to the National Gallery to see pictures which had been cleaned . . . "a great improvement".]

3 days later Vivien arrived to stay, 'in a nervous state and needing rest’.

8th Oct 1947:

Started painting of sherry glass and halved apple on saucer.(Finished on the 11^th October)

Had the Balliol picture photographed.

11th Oct 1947:

Began painting of dahlias in black jug with bird handle.

He finished it on the 13th

not very satisfactory owing to the flowers having faded and drooped

24th Oct 1947:

The question of lighting in the Massey Room is very difficult. There is next to no daylight, and the electric light by candle sconces round the walls.

24th Oct 1947:

Took Balliol picture to Oxford.

2nd Nov 1947:

Painted the subject of Excalibur as remembered at Catterick when I was a boy.

25th Nov 1947:

Went to Fawley Church to make drawings and get ideas for subject of Harvest Festival originally seen in Cornwall during the war. Started painting right away in the afternoon (50x30)

11th Dec 1947:

Leicester Galleries to see Anthony Devas show

I get the unfortunate impression that he is going downhill . . . 

Then to Pasmore’s exhibition at Redfern

First impression disappointing but it grows on one. Drawings very good.

12th Dec 1947:

Van Gogh show at Tate (100 paintings, 80 drawings)

. . . simply magnificent

Then to the really splendid Indian show at the RA. Hardly anyone there. The sculpture so grand.

Then in to Pasmore’s show again and thought it good.

12th Dec 1947:

Cambridge in afternoon, Evensong by candlelight.

13th Dec 1947:

Making notes for the painting of King’s chapel by candlelight. The windows are being put back and as the light dies the colour shows very slightly on stonework.

13th Dec 1947:

Most amusing comic party with Dons in the evening. Sat next to EM Forster. Rather shy. Not in bed till after 1am.

14th Dec 1947:

To service in the morning. Boris Ord played great Fantasia by Bach (in G). Sat up behind the choir.

14th Dec 1947:

Waxed the 2 paintings done a year ago.

1st Jan 1948:

Letter from Vincent Massey in Canada saying £400 too modest [for the Balliol picture], would pay £500 (including £60 for frame)

Money in the bank

. . . so I can work all this year on my own which I haven’t done for about 8 years. The interior of King's College Chapel is the only job I have in front of me.

2nd Jan 1948:

Mavis spent a long time making a tea for a children’s party. But the performance was not very elevating. Talk about ‘infantry at mess’! Caroline also behaved badly, I was resting on our bed and so fortunately missed the performance.

3rd Jan 1948:

The Chalice

Letter from Uncle Otto saying he’d had a letter from Maria Prinke suggesting we should give the chalice to Hans Müller.

Rather an odd idea . . .

. . . it is understood that it should be handed down from eldest son to eldest son in the Eurich family. And as it was the workmanship of a relative it is of great value to me.

[unknown date]:

During the 1st week of January Richard was not well. He had two visits from the doctor who eventually said he ‘thought it was just strain and overwork".

6th Jan 1948:

Reading Mendelssohn’s letters. So good. Keen insight and lively descriptions.

6th Jan 1948:

Painting all morning on the Excalibur picture which I began some time back. The trees overhanging the mere in the background are a trouble. Try to organize them so they mean something in the design and yet to get a hint of something mysterious.

16th Jan 1948:

Started small painting “Twelfth Night”. Hilary Dingle [Caroline's cousin] and Richards's daughter Caroline dismantling the Christmas Tree.

I am painting it for the gilt frame (elaborate) with an arc top size about 14x14. It will be interesting to get the painting at one with the frame.

17th Jan 1948:

Gerhard Ludwig, a German prisoner of war over to tea from the camp at Brockenhurst. We like him very much, a sensitive sort of chap. He has a son of four who he has never seen. He is due to go back to Germany next month . . . 

18th Jan 1948:

12^th Night not going very well

Have realized that I have no aesthetic sensibility which accounts for my difficulties, but I think construction and imaginative work is more interesting and enduring. Pretty colour values and tricky brushwork are not in my line, just as tricky reflected lights and tone values aren’t either.

23rd Jan 1948:

Took some time to rub down the big panel for the King's College Chapel picture with sandpaper. The ground seems pretty tough.

29th Jan 1948:

. . . I decided to start painting the chapel picture, and decided moreover that I should have to start at the floor and work upwards. More likely to get the key to both tone and colour this way.

1st Feb 1948:

Started painting the organ screen in the Chapel picture

3rd Feb 1948:

Old Mr Vincent [one of Mavis's relations]

wants me to paint a picture for the family with some of them (very small) in it. Rather a good idea. So we decided on £100 with frame extra. This will certainly come in very nicely if we are hard up in a year’s time.

7th Feb 1948:

Worked on the 'Harvest Festival' again (50x30). It looked awful when I got it out, made me feel no end depressed.

8th Feb 1948:

Decided that one of the things which has made the Harvest Festival not right in scale is that about 4” must come off the bottom, there being far too much floor. So started extreme alterations.

9th Feb 1948:

Working hard on H F (46x30) something seems to be getting going on it now.

10th Feb 1948:

Funny how Grock (the Dalmatian) lets a fart or breaks wind and he thinks something has bitten him! Jumps up with his tail between his legs and goes out of the room if the door is open, looks at the hearth rug to see if there is anything running about.

10th Feb 1948:

Started painting again on Excalibur. It seems everlasting, but the fact has to be faced that it is not what I want.

11th Feb 1948:

In the evening thought quite suddenly of another vision of childhood picture, sailing fireboats (paper) down a tunnel. Bradford Back perhaps. Boys watching them and gasworks etc coming up over the top of the coping – a good subject I think. [Paper Boats (1951)]

19th Feb 1948:

Painting all day on the old ‘Pears and Grapes’

22nd Feb 1948:

Walk with Grock in the snow:

Having observed the remarkable camouflage of animals in snow in patches, and having watched Mr Crouch’s cows in the heather and gorse, I decided to have a quick go at a picture of such, so started a 20x24 but did not get as far as I had hoped owing to bad light. [Winter Landscape 1948]

4th Mar 1948:

To Academy Hall for Modern Painting and Sculpture. Gertler

. . . too many Chiricos. Good Modigliani, Epstein’s Bernard Shaw, wonderful. The first Paul Klee originals I have seen. Poor Picasso’s. Good small Rouault and Chagall.

9th Mar 1948:

Working all day on Excalibur (never ending!) 

Finished on the 11th. [Remembrance of Things Past (1947)]

12th Mar 1948:

Took Harvest Festival and Excalibur along to Mudge at Fawley to be photographed for the press.

RA Illustrated is going to be issued again this year.

Painting again on ‘animals in the snow’.

16th Mar 1948:

Into Southampton.

The hairdresser told me there was a good show of French paintings at Art Gallery so I went there and found the Peto Collection on view.

The colour is all very beautiful and makes the pictures in the Gallery look very muddy. Even Kit Wood’s ‘Woman at Prayer’ looked dull, but I think the toplight has something to do with it.

17th Mar 1948:

Letter from ‘Life-Time’ [Time-Life?] to say that in Churchill’s memoirs they are reproducing in colour my painting in the Tate Gallery of ‘Survivors on Upturned Boat.’ [Survivors from a Torpedoed Ship (1942)]

20th Mar 1948:

David [Mavis' brother] and Doreen’s wedding. Caroline bridesmaid.

21st Mar 1948:

The visit of Rex Nan Kivell

. . . came down to see us in his huge Horch car. (The only one in England.)

21st Mar 1948:

Visit from Rex

. . .  I think he saw what I was getting at in my work, but is a bit puzzled by the added naturalism. Says the critics will be buzzing round! That remains to be seen.

22nd Mar 1948:

Putting glass on ‘Excalibur’ - packed this one, Harvest Festival and ‘Buttercup field’ (15x18) to take them to the Redfern ready for the RA.

. . .  Dorothy Searle thought they were a throwback to Victorianism. Rex still likes them but confesses he wants to giggle! Peter Cochrane a bit quiet and not sure what to make of them.

What I can’t understand is that they say the development is surprising. I am quite unaware of it and can’t see what the difficulty is. They seem to think in the atomic age everyone must do abstract work! But what reasoning there is behind this I don’t know. It seems to me to be a shelter for the incompetent and shallow-minded.

To the Tate to see Paul Nash memorial show

very good, some outstanding work, perhaps the ‘window’pictures.

23rd Mar 1948:

Crispin’s last day at St. Georges

. . . sorry to leave in many ways.

. . . Alternate friendship and quarrels with John Heaton upset him so. Heaton carries on as though nothing had happened and Crispin takes it to heart.

25th Mar 1948:

Started painting on a 20x30 canvas what I shall probably call ‘The Elysian Fields’, funeral procession through fields with haystack with figure recumbent on it.

28th Mar 1948:

. . . Later went to a cocktail party somewhat against my will at the Sanders. The place seemed to be chock-a block with stupid looking young men of 6ft 6”, and overdressed and made-up elderly women.

1st Apr 1948:

Journey up to York (with Crispin) by train to see Richard's Mother

tractors of brilliant colours working everywhere. Plenty of horse ploughs still, some fine horses.

5th Apr 1948:

Bus journey with Crispin and Jasper to Ilkley took 3 hours.

Crispin says all people here talk Yorkshire, but people in Hampshire, don’t all talk Hampshire . . . true.

9th Apr 1948:

Old Mr. Munt (a former mate of Aubrey Beardsley) is ill with pneumonia. [lived at 'The Cottage' opposite]

14th Apr 1948:

To the docks with Crispin and Mr. Blackhall

. . .  the graving dock with Arundel Castle being overhauled, saw 1^st flying boat come to its dolphin moorings by the Town Quay. Then we went onto the Queen Mary.

16th Apr 1948:

Crispin comes back from Brockenhurst Grammar School looking quite bright and chirpy, seems to find plenty to laugh at.

17th Apr 1948:

Painted organ case in the ‘Chapel’ but trumpet angels will have to be left till the roof is settled.

18th Apr 1948:

Started the vaulting in the ‘Chapel’ picture. Looks as if this part may take a month or so.

23rd Apr 1948:

RA elections

Margaret Fisher Prout got in but not William Roberts!

25th Apr 1948:

painting the ‘Chapel’ all day.

26th Apr 1948:

Silver Wedding of the King and Queen.  Official holiday.

26th Apr 1948:

We went to the sandpit on the way to Lyndhurst.

Made a drawing (preliminary) for a painting there.

27th Apr 1948:

Decided to put the ‘Chapel’ away for a bit to harden as the under painting rubs off when glazes are applied.

Started on 12^th Night again for Schools show at Tate in June.

30th Apr 1948:

RA Private View

On the whole we felt we didn’t want to come to a private view again

3rd May 1948:

Started painting seascape 20x24 probably called The Return ostensibly for Schools Exhibition next month.

5th May 1948:

Letter from Nan Kivell saying Cptn Newman had bought Remembrance of Things Past at the RA.

Very good news as I haven’t sold anything apart from commissions for ages.

7th May 1948:

Painting all day on ‘The Return, made no progress whatever. Most humiliating.

14th May 1948:

Started a small painting of 2 tigers for the Schools Show, but it may not come to anything.

25th May 1948:

Packed up 3 paintings for the ‘Paintings for Schools’ show at the Tate. The Return (seascape) 20x24, ‘12^th Night’ and ‘Tigers’

28th May 1948:

Painting all day on the ‘Chapel’ picture which looks as though it is slowly going ahead, as the tonality is all there. The thing is to indicate the structure as subtly as possible keeping the whole luminous with restricted colour.

3rd Jun 1948:

Working on the 20x16 version of Mother and Child started some months ago. ['Mother and Child (Study)' (1948)]

7th Jun 1948:

Stretched a few canvases including a 30x25 on which I started a grand subject suggested by Mavis and Caroline who are reading ‘Worzel Gummidge’ together – ‘The Battle of Scarecrows’. [Battle of the Boggarts (1948)]

9th Jun 1948:

Decided to accept the invitation of the council to be up for election as Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

12th Jun 1948:

Crispin and I went into Southampton

. . .  We went into the Art Gallery to see some watercolours, when to our great surprise Leonard Daniels was there. He has just got the job of principal of Camberwell School of Art. Says there are over 2,000 students altogether! We had quite a long talk . . . 

18th Jun 1948:

To London to fetch carved frame for Chapel picture

23rd Jun 1948:

Put aside ‘Battle of the Boggarts’ having been a fortnight at it which is quite quick for me.

25th Jun 1948:

Started a 16x20 of foal and mare outside a red brick air raid shelter [Strange Nativity (1948)]

26th Jun 1948:

Concert in the Cloisters at Beaulieu Abbey

. . . During the playing ‘off-stage’ of Debussy’s Syrinx for flute solo, a thrush flew down and listened, and chaps looking over the arched wall and small groups of girls listening made a curious picture of expectancy and wonder.

28th Jun 1948:

Amazing offer fron HH Newton to make a present of a new studio if I can get one built

What an offer! And what generosity! I hardly know what to say to him about it.

28th Jun 1948:

Began painting 14x20 of escarpment and sandpit near Lyndhurst done from drawing made a few weeks ago.