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Best-loved railway art unveiled after global vote

A global vote has unveiled a shortlist of the UK's best-loved railway artwork to celebrate 200 years of the modern railway.

Twenty paintings have been selected, nine of which are held at the National Railway Museum in York.

The public has now been invited to choose an outright winner to be announced on 9 June, the birthday of rail pioneer George Stephenson.

Shortlisted artwork includes paintings by 14 artists, such as renowned railway painter Terence Cuneo.

Joy as grandad's painting tops railway art poll

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The granddaughter of war artist Eric Ravilious said she was "delighted" one of his works had been named as the world's best-loved railway artwork from the UK.

Painted in 1940, Train Landscape shows the chalk white horse of Westbury, Wiltshire, through the window of a third-class train carriage.

Kate Ravilious, who is a Labour councillor in York, said it was "really lovely" to hear how many people loved the painting.

Art UK and Railway 200 organised the ballot, which drew votes from around the world, as part of events to mark the 200th anniversary of the modern railway.

She said the watercolour may never have seen the light of day however, were it not for her grandmother, Tirzah Garwood, who pieced it together from works her grandfather had discarded.

"I think my granddad and my grandmother would have been delighted because she had a lot to play in this painting too," Ms Ravilious said. "My granddad was a perfectionist in his work and about a third of the pieces he decided weren't worth keeping and in this case my grandmother could see the potential. He had a whole series of paintings that he'd done that he wasn't happy with."

Asked why the painting, which is on display at Aberdeen Art Gallery, had topped the poll, she said she believed that era of artwork was gaining popularity. "Perhaps it's a bit of a nostalgia for a past. His view of the landscape, other people have described it as evoking a kind of Englishness we all love."

Ravilious, who grew up in Sussex, was a painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver who later became a war artist. He was the first war artist to die on active service in 1942, meaning Ms Ravilious would never meet him. "Sadly in 1942 he was sent to Iceland and he went off on an air-sea rescue mission and the plane never returned."

She said he had left a vast amount of work behind. "We still have his lovely paintings to remember him by and that's how I know him, through his paintings."