Studies of Contrails by Rudolf Sauter, watercolour and chalk on paper

These four studies of aircraft contrails come from a body of drawings of the subject which Rudolf Sauter made in October 1940 during the Battle of Britain. Later, he also depicted iridescent watercolours of Fighter Command aircraft flying at dawn.

A British artist of German extraction, who had been interned in London and Surrey during the First World War, Sauter made a successful career as a portraitist and landscape painter, exhibiting at the Royal Academy, the Paris Salon and in New York. He was respected for his atmospheric watercolours and pastel drawings which he exhibited with the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours and the Pastel Society. Purchased in 1986. Copyright: the artist's estate / RAF Museum.