Entering the Ballonet by Robert Austin, charcoal on paper

This drawing of women testing a balloon for leakage is one of several large-scale exhibition drawings by Robert Austin, commissioned through the War Artists’ Advisory Committee with RAF Balloon Command.

Austin was a highly-regarded engraver who taught at the Royal College of Art. As the RCA relocated to the Lake District in the Second World War, he worked remotely on his war art commissions. He eagerly represented women’s contributions to the Services, beginning with barrage balloon operatives of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. His biblical engravings, which featured figures in flowing drapery, influenced his stylistic treatment of women among the balloons' fabric folds. From the Air Ministry allocation of works from the War Artists' Advisory Committee, 1947. Original accession number LD1864. On loan from the RAF Air Historical Branch (MOD). Copyright: Crown (expired) / RAF Museum.