From a Paris Plane by C.R.W. Nevinson, lithograph

From a Paris Plane was first exhibited at the Leicester Galleries, London in October 1930 (cat. no. 29) and published as an edition of 25.

In June 1917 Nevinson flew in a BE2C reconnaissance biplane at Hendon, piloted by Air Vice Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker, and experienced for the first time soaring aerial perspectives. He conveyed these in a suite of lithographs, ‘Building Aircraft’, for the War Propaganda Bureau, as part of the multi-artist print series ‘The Great War: Britain’s Efforts and Ideals’. When he returned to France a month later as an Official War Artist, Nevinson flew again, as a passenger with the Royal Flying Corps. This composition, which echoes the geometric designs and precipitous perspectives of his earlier lithographs, was conceived by Nevinson in the 1920s after he took uncomfortable civilian flights from London to Paris in a converted Handley Page bomber. Purchased from the Parkin Gallery in 1976. Artist copyright: expired / RAF Museum.