Sketches
Photographing and cataloguing Richard's sketches is a whole project in itself. The majority are part of the estate collection but a few are owned by private collectors.
The estate set are largely held in the form of sketchbooks and scrapbooks. Some sketch books are from a distinct period but others contain works of widely varying dates. At some point Richard raided his original sketchbooks, cut out key samples and pasted them together with some of his early drawings and watercolours into scrapbooks.
We are calling all the books "sketchbooks" for convenience and we have numbered them 1 to 22. There is also a set marked "0" for estate sketches not found in the books and for those in other collections.
You can view the all sketch books and albums archived so far using links at the bottom of the Explore the Catalogue page.
Portsmouth (1942)
pencil on paper - 21.5h x 35.5w (cm)
Portsmouth (1942)
pencil on paper - 21h x 35.5w (cm)
This extraordinary drawing hardly counts as a ‘sketch’. But it was specifically drawn as a guide for painting back home. He always amazed other artists by never resorting to any sort of measuring tool and just worked from one side of the paper to the other. He was pleased when members of the crew couldn’t find anything wrong except one hatch cover missing.
The Docks (1942)
pencil on paper - 21.6h x 35.6w (cm)
Sketch_20-068 Warship L78 Portsmouth (c1942)
pencil on paper
Sketch_20-056 harbour Weymouth (1941)
pencil on paper
Sketch_20-061 barrage balloons, Hythe (1941)
pencil on paper
Sketch_20-107 three bridges Whitby (1940)
pencil on paper
Warship (1940)
pencil on paper - 21.6h x 35.6w (cm)
Sketch_18-61 Antwerp (23rd May 1939)
pencil on paper
Sketch_20-064 entering the Scheldt near Flushing seen from S.S.Harrogate (21st May 1939)
pencil on paper
Sketch_20-110 Southampton new docks (1938)
pencil on paper
Sketch_20-111 Southampton new docks (1938)
pencil on paper