One of a group of 11 oil paintings by Eurich, an official War Artist, allocated to the National Maritime Museum after World War II. This was his first war-time commission, together with a companion work, 'Fishing Boats at Whitby Bay'. Robin Hood's Bay has always been a popular subject for artists, and it was there Eurich learnt to paint as a schoolboy. He also saw the sea as 'a symbol of a certain loneliness which I have always desired'. The serenity of the scene contrasts with the knowledge of the brutality of the unfolding war, and the artist claimed that during this period of the phoney war he experienced a difficulty in differentiating this scene from a similar one in peacetime. Few people appear on the street, the doors and windows of the houses are closed, and a solitary fisherman sits on the left attending to the weights attached to his fishing nets. A horse waits with a cart on which are the letters, 'T. Cook. R.H.B.', indicating the name of a farmer and an abbreviated form of the town. Yet even in this image there are reminders of the war, such as the sign on the right 'Warning, Mines' and the two men wearing military and naval uniforms standing on the empty street.

Despite the harmony, the painting conveys an air of tension, manifest in the group on the beach looking out to sea, one with a pair of binoculars. They appear to be looking at the two small craft out in the bay. The names of the boats also inform the other meaning of the painting, since the word on the boat on the left, 'Peace', denotes contrast with the state of war in England. The other, 'Good Samaritan', could imply that the action in the bay being carefully watched from the harbour could be a rescue.

Info from Richard Grainger 6/8/07:
I think there may be a mistake in Richard Ernst Eurich's painting 'Robin Hood's Bay in Wartime' painted in 1940. The cobble in the middle of the painting is shown as 'WY4' at Robin Hood's Bay. 'WY4' was in fact the cobble 'True Vine' based at Runswick Bay. She was half decked and skippered by Thomas Patton – if my memory is correct – and stayed in Runswick Bay for a few years after the war. I used to play in 'True Vine' as a child when it was laid up on The Green. The sails were stored under the deck although there was a motor fitted for propulsion and to drive the winch.