‘The James’ and ‘The Foremost Prince’ depicts two boats in a harbour and featured in the artist’s centenary retrospective held at the Imperial War Museum exhibition in London in 2003-4.
It is estimated at £40,000-60,000 for the auction on April 12.
The 19.75 x 22.75in (50 x 58cm) signed watercolour is dated August 1934, three years after Ravilious and Edward Bawden (1903-89) first moved to the village of Great Bardfield in Essex, creating the core of what was to become a well-known artists’ group.
The painting has provenance to the Zwemmer Gallery, the London dealers who staged the artist’s solo exhibition the year before the current picture was painted, and it has changed hands at least twice before it was acquired by the vendor’s uncle.
The sale in Stansted Mountfitchet will take place less than 15 miles from Great Bardfield itself and will also feature works by a number of other artists connected to the group.
The auction will offer ten prints and watercolours by Edward Bawden, including a limited edition linocut inspired by William Blake’s poem The Tyger. From an edition of 50, it carries hopes of £800-1200.
Churchill Sculpture
Elsewhere in the sale is a monumental bust of Sir Winston Churchill, one of six bronzes taken from a cast of the famous statue of Britain’s wartime leader in Parliament Square.
The original 12ft high sculpture was created by Ivor Roberts-Jones RA (1913-96) and was placed in its current location in 1973. A later plaster cast however was taken posthumously in the 1990s to create a limited edition of six bronze busts, a project supervised by Nigel Boonham, past president of the Society of Portrait Sculptors, on behalf of the Trustees of the Ivor Roberts-Jones estate.
This example, number three of six, is 4ft 3in (1.3m) wide and 2ft 10in (87cm) high.
It will be offered at the Sworders with an estimate of £60,000-80,000.
