Raider on the Moor by Paul Nash, lithograph

This lithograph was published by the National Gallery after an original watercolour by Paul Nash from his series ‘Raiders’, commissioned through the War Artists’ Advisory Committee (WAAC) in 1940

When the Second World War began, Nash was one of Britain’s leading modern painters. His WAAC commission was for Air Ministry subjects and, during the Battle of Britain, he was granted access to RAF stations and airfields. He also visited an aircraft dump at Cowley, Oxfordshire, where he took photographs of crashed Luftwaffe planes as source material. For this series, as powerful propaganda Nash represented surreal and triumphant visions of crashed German bombers in idyllic British landscapes. Gift of Anstice Shaw. Copyright: Crown (expired) / RAF Museum.