Ravilious, born in 1903, studied on a scholarship at the Royal College of Art from 1922-25, where his tutors included William Rothenstein and Paul Nash. It was here that he also met his life-long friend Edward Bawden. During the 1920s Ravilious had secured his early reputation with an acclaimed output of wood-engravings, but by 1936 he had begun making lithographs with the Curwen Press and taking commissions for illustration and book jacket design, all whilst continuing to paint the southern English countryside.

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Ravilious was later assigned to the Royal Navy as one of the first Official War Artists in 1941, being transferred to the Air Ministry the following year. During August 1942, while on service in Iceland, he perished during an air sea rescue mission. The Imperial War Museum held an important retrospective of his work in 2004 and he is represented in many public collections.