Art work by Richard Eurich D.Litt. RA OBE (1903-1992) Catalogue Raisonnée: https://richardeurich.co.uk/. Contact: Philippa Bambach 07890 390633 — Photo: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK

Bombardment of the coast near Trapani

1943

oil on canvas

76.2h x 127w (cm)

National Maritime Museum

Narrative

Official War Artist

Wartime

Ships | Boats | Harbours | Ports

Seascapes | Coastal Scenes

Birds Eye View

Bonfires | Flames | Smoke

Commissioned Works

Richard Eurich (1903-1992) Visionary Artist

The Art of Richard Eurich

Recto: signed and dated lower right: R Eurich. 1943

Alternatives:

Capital Ships Bombard Salerno [Art UK]

Bombardment of the Coast Near Trapani, Sicily, by HMS Howe and King George V, 11/12 July 1943 [IWM]

Bombardment of the Coast Near Trapani, Sicily, by HMS King George V and Howe, 11/12 July 1943 [Southampton]

Bombardment by the Coast at Salerno by HM Ships King George V and Duke of York [Bradford, 1979]

Bombardment of Salerno by Capital Ships [RE sales diary]

Tags:

All Works in Public Collections

Birds Eye View

Bonfires / Flames / Smoke

Commissioned Works

Empty Seascapes and Landscapes

Italy

Mediterranean

Motifs

Narrative

Official War Artist

Salerno

Seascapes / Coastal Scenes

Sets

Ships / Boats / Harbours

Sicily

Themes

Wartime

Subject

HMS Valiant

HMS Warspite

NMM

National Maritime Museum

Sea

WW2

WWII

World War 2 World War II

boats ships

bombardment

explosions

guns firing

public collection

war

war artist

warships

wartime

Medium

Oil

See notes on the NMM and Art UK websites linked in References below.

- REP

3rd January 1944: Started ‘Bombardment of Salerno’ by battleships Howe and George V (30x50) High key and bright colour
31st March 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’

- RE diary entry

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.

- IWM - From the Richard Eurich interview by James Mellen done in 1978 for the Imperial War Museum "Artists in an Age of Conflict" series of sound recordings

Provenance & Events

COMMISSIONED • 1943

by the War Artists' Advisory Committee

GIFTED • 1947

National Maritime Museum

by the War Artists' Advisory Committee; accession number BHC1566

EXHIBITION • 1979

"Naval Art Exhibition"

Suffolk Galleries

SOLO SHOW • 25th Nov 1979 to 20th Jan 1980

"Richard Eurich, RA - A Retrospective Exhibition"

Cartwright Hall Gallery, Bradford District Museums and Galleries

Cat 30; Bradford and Southampton venues only

SOLO SHOW • 26th Sep 1991 to 12th Jan 1992

"Richard Eurich - From Dunkirk to D-Day"

Imperial War Museum

Cat 28

SOLO SHOW • 28th Jan to 13th Mar 1994

"The Edge of all the Land: Richard Eurich 1903-1992"

Southampton City Art Gallery

Cat 33, illustrated

References:

Catalogues

"Edge of All the Land” Southampton (1994)"; Southampton City Art Gallery / Nicholas Usherwood. [Figure 33]

Books

"Richard Eurich (1903-1992) Visionary Artist"; Edward Chaney and Christine Clearkin (contributions by James Hyman, David McCann and Peyton Skipwith), pub. 2003: Paul Holberton Publishing, ISBN 1903470110 [Cat 28, illustrated as frontispiece detail and page 63, not exhibited]
"Night Raid on Portsmouth Docks’ signed 1941 - A Wartime Incident by Richard Eurich (1903-1992), THE ELUSIVE MR BEARE AND OTHER ESSAYS"; Nigel Surry, Fortune Press, 2015
"William Rothenstein & Richard Eurich - WAR ARTISTS"; Colin Neville, Not Just Hockney, 2021 [pg 18]
"The Art of Richard Eurich"; Andrew Lambirth, pub. 2020: Lund Humphries, 170 colour illustrations, ISBN 9781848221727 [fig 45, pg 64]

Reviews

"In Focus: The Anglo-German pacifist-turned-war artist who famously chronicled Dunkirk — despite not being there"; Peyton Skipwith, Country Life - online
"Rediscovering Richard Eurich"; by Peyton Skipwith, pub. Fine Art Connoisseur (Streamline, USA), October 2020, Historic Masters, pp 130-135
"Richard Eurich: Artist Without a Style"; by Donald Pittenger, pub. Art Contrarian (blog)