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One of the greatest aviation artists of all time, Robert Taylor, his entire back catalogue aviaton art prints are available direct from military art.com
One of the greatest aviation artists of all time, Robert Taylor, his entire back catalogue aviaton art prints are available direct from military art.com		 Military and aviation arist David Pentland. His entire range of German armour and other military forces are available at great discounted prices direct from The Military Art Company
Military and aviation arist David Pentland. His entire range of German armour and other military forces are available at great discounted prices direct from The Military Art Company		 Ivan Berryman is recognised as one of the leading aviation and naval artists, his entire range of prints published by Cranston Fine Arts are available direct from us, including many original aviation paintings.
Ivan Berryman is recognised as one of the leading aviation and naval artists, his entire range of prints published by Cranston Fine Arts are available direct from us, including many original aviation paintings.		 Nicolas Trudgian.  His last remaining aviation art prints from his back catalogue published by Military Gallery and bought over in 2007 by Cranston Fine Arts are available only direct from our websites.  See Nicolas Trudgian's full range here.
Nicolas Trudgian.  His last remaining aviation art prints from his back catalogue published by Military Gallery and bought over in 2007 by Cranston Fine Arts are available only direct from our websites.  See Nicolas Trudgian's full range here.
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Ernest Crofts

Ernest Crofts in his studio in 1883 working on the painting of Charles 1st on His Way To Execution.

Crofts was one of the leading military-historical painters of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, exhibiting well over 40 paintings at the Royal Academy and numerous scenes at other exhibitions depicting soldiers in battle or on campaign. And, unlike many of his contemporaries, he had had the luxury of actually witnessing soldiers in battle during the Franco-Prussian War. After his early schooling at Rugby, the young Yorkshireman moved to Dusseldorf in 1870 to study art with the German military artist, Emile Hunten (1827-1902), and spent almost ten years there before returning to England to study with the historical genre painter, Alfred Barron Clay. During his stay in Germany, he accompanied Hunten to various battlefields during the war with France and was present at the battle of Gravelotte, but not being a war correspondent, had to remain on the other side of the Moselle River. He did witness the battles around Saarbruck and Borny, and these experiences helped to mould the young man's ideas with the result that his early paintings represented scenes from the war. One such painting entitled One touch of nature makes the whole world kin represented a Prussian soldier offering water to a wounded Frenchman, and won for the artist a silver medal at the Crystal Palace in 1874. At the Royal Academy in the same year he showed a scene depicting the French retreat from Gravelotte. However, in the following year, he turned his attention to a more historical military scene with his representation of the battle of Ligny in 1815, showing Napoleon surrounded by his staff surveying the battlefield while columns of infantry advance to the front. This was to be the first of no fewer than twelve paintings shown at the Royal Academy by the artist between 1875 and 1906 representing the events surrounding the Waterloo campaign, the one exception being his 1887 rendition, Napoleon leaving Moscow. For whatever reason, Crofts produced a series of accurate retrospective scenes of the Waterloo campaign right down to the minutest detail. Gone were the sweeping panoramic battle scenes of the early 19th century. The focus now was on the incident. Crofts had the skill and eye to produce these masterpieces of late Victorian battle art equaled only by Lady Butler. He himself built up a large collection of original uniforms and accessories, many of which were exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition held at Chelsea Hospital in 1890. Many of his surviving sketches of figure studies attest to his fine draughtsmanship. It is quite probable that Crofts visited the battlefield of Waterloo and vicinity to gather sketches of the various locales he intended to depict. Other places were visited in order to obtain particular information such as details of Napoleon's coach at Madame Tussaud's for his 1879 work, On the Evening of the Battle of Waterloo. In this painting, Napoleon, bareheaded and forlorn, escapes from his carriage just before it becomes the booty of the Prussians. His troops are being routed an are in an utter state of confusion although several ranks of the old guard vainly attempt to present a hasty line of retreat. Two paintings dating from 1876 and 1878 represent the events before the battle. In the scene entitled On the morning of the battle of Waterloo, Crofts depicted the centre of the French position at break of day on June 18, 1815, under a dull sky laden with rain. Napoleon, surrounded by several marshals makes preparations for the final inevitable struggle. The Emperor, pale but undaunted, sits at a table near a farmhouse consulting a map while questioning a local farmer named Decoster. All around, the French army nervously awaits its fate. The painting of 1878 was entitled Wellington's March from Quatre Bras to Waterloo and featured a group of French prisoners being escorted by soldiers of the 79h Highlanders at the moment when the Duke of Wellington salutes a troop of passing Royal Scots Greys, Wellington appears in other paintings by Crofts including At the Farm of Mont St. Jean painted in 1882. Other paintings of the battle represented the fighting around Hougoumont, the capture of a French Battery by the 52nd Regiment (1896), and Napoleon's Last Grand Attack (1895). While Crofts represented scenes from the wars of Wallenstein, Marlborough, and even a painting of the Sikh War, Charge of the 3rd King's Own Light Dragoons, Moodkee, it was the events of the English Civil War which, like Waterloo, captured the artist's imagination. In fact it was his Royal Academy picture of 1877 - Oliver Cromwell at Marston Moor - that brought the artist to the attention of many art critics. Similarly it was another Civil War scene, his 1898 painting To the rescue: an episode of the Civil War, which he painted on election to the Academy itself, the only late nineteenth century military artist to achieve this honour. Most of the major battles of the war such as Edgehill, Marston Moor and Naseby were painted by the artist as well as siege related scenes, i.e. Oliver Cromwell at the Storming of Basing House, painted in 1900, The Surrender of Donnington Castle, painted three years later, and The surrender of the city of York to the Roundheads, exhibited only three years before the artist's death. Crofts painted a trilogy of canvases surrounding the execution of Charles 1 as well as scenes representing the campaigning at Worcester such as Charles 11 at Whiteladies (1898) and The Boscobel Oak (1889). Crofts died on March 19, 1911 at Burlington House where he had lived as Keeper of the Royal Academy. Three years later and almost a century after Waterloo, Europe went to war again on a scale unimagined by the artist. The Great War inspired a vastly different type of art focusing on the horrors rather than the glory of war. While Crofts' pictures had been popular in the 1870's and 1880's, the public lost its appetite for war pictures in the early years of the 20th century and during the hideous war in South Africa. While Crofts continued to paint scenes of war within the confines of the Royal Academy exhibitions, the public lost interest in his work and today, with the exception of a handful of canvases in public galleries, his paintings are more or less forgotten but they deserve greater attention if only for their wealth of detail and as windows on late Victorian attitudes to war and history. (c) Peter Harrington 1991

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<b>Ex display prints in near perfect condition. </b>A scene From the Civil War by Ernest Crofts. (Y)Click For DetailsDHM0173
The younger Charles, after escaping the Worcester rout, is hiding in a pollard oak, with the Roundheads hunting for him.The Boscobol Oak, By Ernest Crofts. (Y)Click For DetailsDHM0203
Napoleon on the morning of Waterloo surrounded by the Imperial Guard. In fact, all the French Infantry would have been wearing their capotes (greatcoats) Morning of Waterloo by Ernest Crofts. (Y)Click For DetailsDHM0292
The execution of Charles I, January 30th, 1649. Whitehall by Ernest Crofts. (Y)Click For DetailsDHM0408
The body of King Charles the first is brought by his supporters to St Georges Chapel at Windsor after his execution at Whitehall on the January 30th, 1649.Funeral of Charles I, St Georges Chapel, Windsor by Ernest Crofts. (Y)Click For DetailsDHM0470
Possibly depicting Royal Irish Dragoons in the early 1700s. The Outpost (Dragoon c 1700) by Ernest Crofts. (Y)Click For DetailsDHM0493
Four Battle of Waterloo prints by Ernest Crofts and J P Beadle.Click For DetailsDPK0040
Ernest Crofts Napoleonic Print Pack.Click For DetailsDPK0229
Ernest Crofts Battle of Waterloo Print Pack.Click For DetailsDPK0230
Special three print pack of the execution of Charles I. Each print approx size 24 inches x 15 inches (61cm x 38cm) DPK0381. Charles I on his way to Execution, Whitehall - Execution of Charles I and Funeral of Charles I at Windsor by Ernest CroftsClick For DetailsDPK0381
Pack 461. Pack of two 18th Century military prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK0461
Pack 462. Pack of two English Civil War prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK0462
Pack 463. Pack of two English Civil War prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK0463
Pack 464. Pack of two English Civil War prints of Charles I by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK0464
Pack 465. Pack of two English Civil War prints of Charles I by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK0465
Pack 466. Pack of two Civil War prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK0466
Pack 467. Pack of two English Civil War military prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK0467
Pack 491. Pack of two English Civil War military prints by Yeams and Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK0491
Pack 492. Pack of two English Civil War art prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK0492
Pack 815. Two Battle of Waterloo prints by Ernest Crofts and Aylward.Click For DetailsPCK0815
Pack 818. Pack of two Battle of Waterloo prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK0818
Pack 819. Pack of two French Napoleonic prints by Ernest Crofts and J P Beadle.Click For DetailsPCK0819
Pack 928. Pack of two Wellington at Waterloo prints by Ernest Crofts and Mark Churms.Click For DetailsPCK0928
12th Lancers Prints by Ernest Crofts and J P Beadle.Click For DetailsPCK1029
Oliver Cromwell Prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK1147
English Civil War Prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK1148
Civil War Prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK1149
Oliver Cromwell Prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK1150
French Napoleonic Prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK1153
Wellington at Waterloo Prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK1154
Waterloo Art Prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK1155
British Infantry Prints by Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK1156
<b>Military Print Pack. </b>Army of Wellington at Quatre Bras and Waterloo Military Prints by Lady Elizabeth Butler and Ernest Crofts.Click For DetailsPCK2073

 

AVIATION PRINTS

Click above to see all of our half price aviation prints - Eight random items are displayed to the right.

Some Current Half Price Offers

Often described as the most effective fighter escorts in the US Army Air Force, the famous red-tailed Tuskegee airmen could proudly boast that they never lost a single bomber to enemy fighters in all the missions flown. Nearest aircraft here is the P51C of Lt. Lee A Archer Jr, who finished the war with four confirmed victories and one shared. His personal aircraft was named <i>Ina the Macon Belle</i> after his wife.

Red Tails by Ivan Berryman. (P)
Half Price! - £2000.00 		Spitfire L1000 (DW-R) of No.610 Sqn is terminally damaged by an Me109 over Dunkirk on 29th May 1940. The Spitfire pilot, Flying Officer Gerald Kerr is listed is missing after this combat.

Kerrs Last Combat by Ivan Berryman. (P)
Half Price! - £280.00 		Depicting Dauntless and Devastator attacking the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi during the Battle of Midway.

Midway - The Setting Sun by Ivan Berryman.
Half Price! - £55.00 		FAR936. The Peacekeepers by Adrian Rigby.

The Peacekeepers by Adrian Rigby.
Half Price! - £25.00

Designed by the great Ernst Heinkel, the diminutive D.1 was an essential stop-gap that provided the Austro-Hungarian pilots with a front line fighter until they were able to re-equip with Albatros scouts in the Summer of 1917. This little aircraft performed well and was generally held in high regard by its pilots, although it did have some shortcomings, namely that forward vision was extremely limited and the Schwarzloses gun was completely concealed in the overwing pod that made it inaccessible in the air. Most unusual of all was its interplane strut arrangement, designed to reduce drag, which gave it the nicknames Starstrutter or Spider. These examples are shown passing above the German cruiser Derfflinger. 

Brandenburg D.1 by Ivan Berryman. (GL)
Half Price! - £350.00 		Magdeburg, Germany, 10th April 1945. Attacking from behind and above, ObLt.Walter Schuck, Staffelkapitain of 3./JG7, ripped through the massed boxes of 8th Airforce B17s, downing four in a single high speed pass.

Deadly Pass by David Pentland. (P)
Half Price! - £275.00 		Swordfish of 825 Sqn led by Lt-Cdr Esmonde begin their heroic attack on the battlescruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen as they make their way up the English Channel from Brest during Operation Cerberus on 12th February 1942. Although all the aircraft were lost and no significant damage was done to the German fleet, all the pilots were decorated for their bravery and Lt-Cdr Esmonde received the first Fleet Air Arm VC to be awarded, albeit posthumously. The painting depicts the first wave of Swordfish attacking the Scharnhorst with Gneisenau taking avoiding action in the distance. A German torpedo boat has turned to confront the attacking aircraft.

Attack on the Scharnhorst by Ivan Berryman.
Half Price! - £15.00 		A Mosquito Mk.BIX above the clouds in late 1943. Mosquito B.IX LR503 holds the record for the most combat missions flown by a single Allied bomber in the Second World War, serving 213 sorties.

A De Havilland Beauty by Ivan Berryman.
Half Price! - £95.00

NAVAL PRINTS

Click above to see all of our half price naval prints - Eight random items are displayed to the right.

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B146. HMS Jamaica by Ivan Berryman.

HMS Jamaica by Ivan Berryman.
Half Price! - £15.00 		Viewed from beneath the blistered guns of the damaged X and Y turrets of her sister HMS Ajax, Achilles come sunder fire from the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee during what was to become known as the Battle of the River Plate on the 13th December 1939. Shells from Achilles are closing on her opponent as the Graf Spee alters course at the start of the doomed battleships flight to Montevideo.

The Pursuit of the Graf Spee by Ivan Berryman.
Half Price! - £50.00 		B105AP. HMS Fearless by Ivan Berryman.

HMS Fearless by Ivan Berryman (AP)
Half Price! - £25.00 		The moment shortly after dawn on 24th May 1941 when HMS Hood, in company with HMS Prince of Wales, opens fire on the Bismarck, setting in motion one of the greatest sea dramas the world had seen.

HMS Hood Engages Bismarck by Ivan Berryman (AP)
Half Price! - £25.00

Over 150 years of the Royal Navy are encapsulated in this view of the mighty HMS Nelson, moored at Portsmouth in 1945. Beyond the 16in guns of A turret, the masts of Admiral Nelsons flagship at Trafalgar, HMS Victory rise into the skyline whilst in the foreground MTB 507 cruises past on its way to the Solent.

HMS Nelson by Ivan Berryman (P)
Half Price! - £2750.00 		The cruiser HMS Frobisher dominates this scene off Houlgate at the Normandy landings of 1944. The monitor HMS Roberts lies beyond Frobisher with a Large Infantry Landing Ship or LSI (L) unshipping its LCAs on the extreme right of the picture. In the foreground, a motor launch attends a group of LCP (L)s as they head for the French beaches. Two Spitfire Mk.IXs conduct sweeps overhead as Operation Neptune gathers momentum.

HMS Frobisher and HMS Roberts at Normandy by Ivan Berryman (P)
Half Price! - £4000.00 		Depicting Titanic with the sun going down for the last time.

Titanic by Robert Barbour (AP)
Half Price! - £50.00 		HMS Dreadnought passes Spice Island as she heads for the open sea escorted by a torpedo boat destroyer.

HMS Dreadnought at Portsmouth by Randall Wilson.
Half Price! - £50.00

WORLD WAR TWO MILITARY PRINTS

Click above to see all of our half price world war two military - Eight random items are displayed to the right.

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<b>Ex display prints in near perfect condition. </b>

Liberation - Sherman Tanks of the Guards Brigade by David Pentland. (Y)
Half Price! - £50.00 		Ernst Barkmanns (Das Reich, 2nd SS Panzer Division) famous day long solo engagement against an American Armoured breakthrough towards St. Lo, Normandy, 26th July 1944.

Barkmanns Corner by David Pentland. (GL)
Half Price! - £300.00 		Hauptsturm fuhrer Fritz Klingenberg, and the men of 2nd SS Divisions Motorcycle Reconnaissance battalion stop at the swollen banks of the River Danube. The following day he and six men, a broken down radio, and totally unsupported were to capture the Yugoslavian capital of Belgrade.

The Magician, Balkans, 11th April 1941 by David Pentland. (GL)
Half Price! - £300.00 		Captain R. Blair Paddy Mayne, and men of L detachment SAS, stop to discuss their location en route to Sidi Haneish airfield. The raid was a major victory, especially for the newly acquired jeeps, which played an important part in the destruction of some 40 enemy aircraft for the loss of one man.

Paddys Troopers, The Sidi Haneish Road, 17th July 1942 by David Pentland. (GL)
Half Price! - £300.00

9th (Irish) Field Battery firing on the Run-in-shoot to Queen Beach. They were the first rounds fired at the Normandy Coast, D-Day 6th June, 1944. Queen Beach, one of the 4 sectors of Sword Beach, where most of the landings of D-Day were carried out. The Queen Beach sector which extended for 1.5km between Lion-sur-Mer and the western edge of Ouistretham. The attack was thus concentrated on a narrow one-brigade front. For once the DD tanks and other armour came in exactly on time and ahead of the infantry. The 8th brigade, with the 1st Battalion of the South Lancashire Regiment on the right and the 2nd East Yorkshire on the left.

Operation Overlord by David Rowlands (B)
Half Price! - £20.00 		CC017. Original art for the poster of the film The Big Red One starring Lee Marvin by Chris Collingwood.
Original art for the poster of the film The Big Red One starring Lee Marvin by Chris Collingwood.
Half Price! - £2000.00 		Bastogne, Ardennes, Belgium, 20th December 1944. Newly arrived 81mm Mortars of 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division, fire in support of U.S. Paratroopers defending against German probes to the north of Bastogne.

Fire for Effect by David Pentland.
Half Price! - £70.00 		King Tigers of Kampfgruppe von Rosen, 3rd Company Heavy Tank Battalion 503, preparing to move out from the Tisza bridgehead to counter Soviet pressure on German forces attacking to the northwest at Debrecen during the first battles to defend the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

Tigers in the Mist by David Pentland.
Half Price! - £95.00

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