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

Dunkirk Beaches, May 1940

1941

oil on canvas

101.8h x 152.5w (cm)

National Gallery of Canada

Bonfires | Flames | Smoke

Umbrellas | Hats

Vincent and Alice Massey

Commissioned Works

RA Summer Exhibitions

The Art of Richard Eurich

Recto: signed and dated lower left: R. EURICH. 1940-1

Alternatives:

Dunkirk Beach, May, 1940 [Redfern]

Dunkirk Beach, May 1940 [RA]

Dunkirk Beach [RE sales diary]

Tags:

All Works in Public Collections

Birds Eye View

Bonfires / Flames / Smoke

Commissioned Works

Dunkerque

Dunkirk

Figures on a Beach

France

Motifs

Narrative

Normandy

Official War Artist

Sets

Themes

Umbrellas / Hats

Wartime

Subject

National Gallery of Canada

WW2

WWII

World War 2 World War II

aeroplane

airplane

animals

bicycles

black smoke

bodies

brown sail

columns

dead

dunes

escape

explosions

fields

flames

guns

hat

helmet

horses

jeep

killed

lighthouses

public collection

rescue

rifles

sailing

sailing boat

sand

shelling

shelter

ships

shooting

soldiers

spade

vehicles

war

warplanes

wartime

wounded

wreckage

Medium

Oil

8th January 1942: 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.”

- RE diary

There are five Richard Eurich works that we know of depicting the Dunkirk evacuation. See the others below.

- REP

Vincent Massey was the Canadian High Commissioner to Britain during WW2, and later became the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada. He was also an art collector, and took a close interest in the activities of the both the Canadian and British war artists. Richard's set of Dunkirk pictures painted in 1940 were done speculatively before he was taken on as a official war artist, so he had to try to sell them through the Redfern gallery. Massey bought the biggest of them, Dunkirk Beaches, May 1940 (1940), at the 1941 exhibition, along with Staithes, Yorkshire (1938), both of which he gifted to the National Gallery of Canada.
Also see: The Frozen Tarn (1940) and Troops at Balliol, Second World War (1947)

- REP / PC

Provenance & Events

SOLO SHOW • 12th Mar to 5th Apr 1941

"Richard Eurich"

Redfern Gallery

Cat 7

Priced at GNS250

ACQUIRED • 1941

purchased from the Redfern Gallery by Vincent Massey

EXHIBITION • 5th May to 9th Aug 1941

"Summer Exhibition 1941"

Royal Academy of Art

Cat 18; voted 'Picture of the Year'

EXHIBITION • January 1942

"War Artist Pictures"

National Gallery

IWM dates this showing as 1944

EXHIBITION • 1945

"War Artists Pictures"

[venue and exact date unknown]

EXHIBITION • 13th Oct to 25th Nov 1945

"National War Pictures"

Royal Academy of Arts

Cat 46

GIFTED • 1946

National Gallery of Canada

by the Massey Collection of English Painting; accession number 4763

EXHIBITION • 11th Apr to 30th Jun 1946

"A Collection of Contemporary English Painting"

Tate

The inaugural exhibition of the Massey Collection of English Painting (MCEP)

EXHIBITION • 30th Oct 1946 to 2nd Jan 1947

"A Collection of Contemporary English Painting"

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

First showing of the Massey Collection of English Painting (MCEP) in Canada before touring many other locations in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

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

"Richard Eurich - From Dunkirk to D-Day"

Imperial War Museum

Cat 8; illustrated

References:

Catalogues

"Richard Eurich - From Dunkirk to D-Day"; Nicholas Usherwood, pub. 1991: Imperial War Museum, London, ISBN 0 901627 77 1

Reviews

"From the Beaches of Dunkirk: Richard Eurich"; Peter Simpson, National Gallery of Canada Magazine, November 11, 2020
"Depuis les plages de Dunkerque : Richard Eurich"; Peter Simpson, Musee des beaux-arts du Canada Magazine, 11 novembre 2020
"Illustrated London News"; [c1941]
"Rediscovering Richard Eurich"; by Peyton Skipwith, pub. Fine Art Connoisseur (Streamline, USA), October 2020, Historic Masters, pp 130-135
"Appletreewick, Hythe - The Home of Richard Eurich A.R.A."; by Oliver Beckett, pub. The Hampshire Countryside, Vol. 1, No. 10, October-December, 1948 ['Dunkirk Beaches, May 1940' illustrated p 265]

Collections

"National Gallery of Canada"; [reference page]

Books

"The Art of Richard Eurich"; Andrew Lambirth, pub. 2020: Lund Humphries, 170 colour illustrations, ISBN 9781848221727 [fig 37, pg 54]
"The National Gallery in Wartime"; by Suzanne Bosman, pub. National Gallery Company Ltd, London, 2008, reprinted 2019, ISBN 9781857094244, 1018522 [illustrated pp 95-96]

Other

"Print of Dunkirk Beaches, 1940"; publisher unknown
"Going British And Being Modern In The Visual Art Systems Of Canada, 1906-1976"; by Sarah A. Stanners, University of Toronto, pub. Library and Archives Canada, Published Heritage Branch, 2009 [see chapter 1]