Lot 24
**Alfred Egerton Cooper R.B.A. (British, 1883-1974) The Firth of Forth with the British Fleet from HMA 9 Airship, oil on canvas, circa 1916, signed recto, Bourlet labels verso, 69m h x 89cm w, within a painted wood frame. ** Artist's Re-sale Rights may be payable on this lot. Provenance: Sir Barnes Wallis thence by descent. Exhibited: possibly "Airships in Peace and War" Prince's Gallery, Knightsbridge, September 1919. Note: The R.9 was the first airship on which Barnes Wallis worked, serving as an assistant at Vickers under Chief Designer H. B. Pratt, and was the first British rigid airship to fly. Alfred Egerton Cooper and Wallis were close friends from their time together in the Artists Rifles, a connection that lends particular resonance to this work. This painting may be among the earliest works executed in flight, or developed from sketches made in the air, and was very likely painted during the same flight as the photograph "An aerial view of a portion of the Grand Fleet at anchor in the Firth of Forth, taken from the British Airship R.9" (Imperial War Museum, cat. no. Q 20633). The painting is prominently displayed on the wall of Barnes Wallis's office in the 1955 film "The Dam Busters", widely regarded as one of the best-known and most beloved British war films of the post-Second World War era.  £4000-6000