A dramatic and atmospheric depiction of a lone Avro Lancaster bomber returning from night operations over Germany by British-born artist Roy Nockolds (1911–1979). Avro’s heavy bomber, the Lancaster was developed from the Manchester by Roy Chadwick, and was primarily a night bomber. It won its spurs in countless raids over enemy occupied territory, including the famous Dambusters Raid in 1943.
Roy Nockolds made legitimate claim to being one of the most successful illustrators of his generation. Highly versatile, his subjects included marine, aviation, landscape, and portrait commissions. He was predominantly active in the interwar and immediate postwar years, and it is for his oil paintings that he is chiefly remembered. As step by step, the path followed down the road to war in 1939, governments of all nations hastened to commission artists and graphic designers to produce information and propaganda posters. Nockolds, serving in the Royal Air Force, was recruited by Edwin J. Embleton, Art Director at the Ministry of Information, and seconded as official war artist to the design, poster and visualising group. Examples of his acclaimed aviation subjects of the period are hard to find.
Numerous private and museum collections hold works by Nockolds, including the RAF Museum, Royal Aero Club, the Science Museum, and the Imperial War Museum. Postwar, he exhibited widely at the Royal Academy and Royal Society of Portrait Painters. In 1960, he was invited to contribute to the Exhibition of British Achievements held in New York. Chairman of the Guild of Aviation Artists, a memorial exhibition of his work was staged at the Quantas Gallery in London’s Piccadilly in 1980, the year following his death. Signed by the artist and dated 1945. Framed with a substantial swept oak frame with slip and unglazed.
Canvas size: 15 x 19 in. (38 x 48 cm). Overall size: 25 x 29 in. (63.5 x 74 cm).