Art work by Richard Eurich D.Litt. RA OBE (1903-1992) Catalogue Raisonnée: https://richardeurich.co.uk/. Contact: Philippa Bambach 07890 390633 — Photo: www.bridgemanart.com

D-Day, Reconstruction - Beach Landing

1944

oil on panel

102h x 228.5w (cm)

Bonfires | Flames | Smoke

Bicycles

Umbrellas | Hats

Commissioned Works

Alternatives:

D-Day, Reconstruction - Beach Landing []

D-Day, Reconstruction (Beach Landing) [Art UK]

Beach Landing, centre panel from the D-Day triptych, 1944 [Bridgeman]

D-day [RE sales diary]

Tags:

All Works in Public Collections

Bicycles / Ladders

Bonfires / Flames / Smoke

Commissioned Works

Figures on a Beach

France

Motifs

Night

Normandy

Official War Artist

Panoramas

Sets

Themes

Umbrellas / Hats

Wartime

Subject

Harris Museum & Art Gallery

Sea

WW2

WWII

World War 2 World War II

army

battle

bicycle

hat

helmet

men

military

parachutes

soldiers

troops

war

war artist

wartime

Medium

Oil

This is the central panel of an unconnected triptych. It was Richard's last painting as an Official War Artist for the Admiralty.

Frustrated by censorship, Richard expressed his discontent in a letter to Sydney Schiff on 3 July 1944, stating his intention to work on a large triptych and suggesting it might be his final work for the War Ministry. Struggling with exhaustion, ill-health, and family issues (his infant daughter Joanna had died of meningitis in March 1944), he found the painting difficult to complete. Athough he was dissatisfied with the outcome, the painting expresses an honest view of the war, more in keeping with his personal vision and less favoured by the Admiralty.

- REP/PC and partly taken from a catalogue note by Nicholas Usherwood, The Edge of all the Land, 1994.

All three panels shown in Related Images below.
Catalogue links to each of the panels:
Battleships at Sea
Beach Landing
Bombed Cathedral

- REP / PC

13th July 1944:
Spent night on HMS Enterprise. Captain Groves very helpful with regard to the bombardment on D-Day etc.

- RE diary

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
". . . 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.’

- IWM / REP

Also see Preparations for D-Day (1944)

- REP-PC

See this article in the Guardian about cyclist soldiers.

- REP-PC

Provenance & Events

COMMISSIONED • 1945

by the Admiralty / War Artists' Advisory Committee

EXHIBITION • 13th Oct to 25th Nov 1945

"National War Pictures"

Royal Academy of Arts

GIFTED • [date unknown]

The Harris

by the War Artists' Advisory Committee; Accession number PRSMG : P1115

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

"Richard Eurich - From Dunkirk to D-Day"

Imperial War Museum

Cat 32

EXHIBITION • 8th Jun 2024

"D-Day 80"

The Guild Hall Foyer

Centre panel.

References:

Books

"William Rothenstein & Richard Eurich - WAR ARTISTS"; Colin Neville, Not Just Hockney, 2021 [pg 19]

Other

"Bridgeman Images"; [view image]
"Art UK Curations 3"; [Artists and wartime places: Richard Eurich | curated by David Saywell, Head of Digital Assets, Art UK]