Study: Southern England, 1944. Spitfires Attacking Flying Bombs by Walter Thomas Monnington, graphite and ink on paper

Made in preparation for a finished painting (IWM Collection LD 4589), this compositional sketch represents spitfires flying at low altitude over tree-lined countryside in Southern England, leaving white contrails in the sky. With ink, Monnington paints a washline mount around the drawing.

In the finished painting the artist elaborated upon bucolic details of flora and fauna, including grazing cattle, a horse and cart, and a river. Foreground features compositionally bear a passing resemblance to John Constable's painting 'The Haywain', perhaps to reaffirm a sense of national pride in the endurance of British culture and customs amid war. Prior to becoming an Official War Artist in the autumn of 1943, Monnington had spent over 600 hours involved with aerial observation while working for the Directorate of Camouflage, developing designs to protect airfields and factories, and analysing the appearances of ground-level objects from the air. Noticing an absence of airborne perspectives in commissioned war paintings, he wrote to the War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC), requesting to paint aerial subjects and thus to fly as a passenger in RAF aircraft. The Air Ministry's Deputy Director of Public Relations, Group Captain Lord Willoughby de Broke (John Verney), arranged facilities for him to fly, deeming his airbourne experience and familiarity with RAF stations to be a 'great asset' and describing him as 'the type of person who will get on well with RAF personnel wherever he goes.' Monnington received aerial themed commissions until the end of the war, in addition to painting radar subjects and admiralty portraits. Purchased in 2025. Artist copyright: the artist's estate. Image copyright: RAF Museum.