British painter printmaker Eric Ravilious is one of our best-loved Sussex artists. This watercolour painting dating from 1939 depicts the famous Belle Tout lighthouse that stands guard upon the Seven Sisters cliffs above Beachy Head and Birling Gap. Ravilious painted several watercolours of lighthouses and as a boy growing up in nearby Eastbourne he must have been familiar with both the Belle Tout and Beachy Head lighthouses from an early age. However, this is his only work depicting the interior of such a building which must've made a refreshed change to wandering the cliffs and downland in the howling wind with his sketchbook from dawn to dusk.
 
Built in 1832 and decommissioned in 1902 due to cliff top fogs and crumbling cliffs, Belle Tout was badly damaged during World War II. It was lovingly restored in the fifties and in 1999 this extraordinary building had to be moved back from the quick-eroding chalk cliffs using a pioneering system of hydraulic jacks and rails. Today the lighthouse is open as a bed and breakfast which means you enjoy the same view of the English Channel as seen in this beautiful art print. For more information on this fascinating building and to book accomodation visit https://www.belletout.co.uk/