Newhaven Harbour

Eric Ravilious 1903 - 1942

Summary

A harbour scene with a lighthouse in the left foreground and a ship coming into the harbour in the middle centre of the composition. There are harbour walls on either side and the one on the right curves round to a second lighthouse in the right middle ground. At the end of the harbour wall on the left is a watchtower and above the sky is blue with large white clouds. The perspective of the composition recesses slightly to the right. Ravilious sketched a steamer entering the harbour from open sea early one morning while staying in Newhaven, East Sussex. He often got up early to avoid the crowds and because he enjoyed the dawn light. There are no people. The incoming ship offers the only prospect of life. Ravilious called it his 'Homage to Seurat' and it recalls Seurat's unpeopled paintings of Honfluer and other Channel ports.