THE WILMINGTON GIANT 1939

Eric Ravilious made this color lithograph, ‘The Wilmington Giant,’ sometime in the mid-20th century. It shows the famous chalk figure carved into a hillside in Sussex, England. The Long Man of Wilmington, as it’s also known, has stood for centuries, so Ravilious was capturing something of England’s deep past. But this is not simply a topographical illustration; it's a print produced in wartime, showing a fenced-off landscape. The barbed wire and heavy post that dominate the foreground remind us that the work was made during a time of great anxiety about national borders and potential invasion. In that context, the ancient figure becomes a symbol of native resistance. Ravilious, like many artists of his time, was employed to create images for the war effort. To understand the image more fully, a historian might look to local archives, folklore, or even military records. Ravilious’ print can then be understood not only as a depiction of an ancient monument but also as a reflection of the social and political landscape of wartime Britain.