“Macbeth”: Out, out brief candle!

Location

Country: Angola
City: Luanda
Place: British Embassy

Ruskin Spear, known chiefly as a painter of portraits and landscapes, was born and lived throughout his life in Hammersmith, west London. His father was a coach painter and his ambitious mother expected him to live up to the names she chose for him: Augustus, John, Ruskin, after the celebrated British artists Augustus John (1878–1961) and John Ruskin (1819–1900). He won a scholarship to Hammersmith School of Art at the age of fifteen, and another scholarship to the Royal College of Art, where he studied from 1931 to 1934. Spear executed commissions for the War Artists Advisory Committee and took part in the ‘Recording Britain’ scheme, sponsored by the Pilgrim Trust, from 1940 to 1945. He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1944 and Royal Academician in 1954. From 1948 to 1975 he was tutor at the Royal College of Art and was made President of the London Group in 1949. His first solo exhibition was held at the Leicester Galleries in 1951. He was awarded a CBE in 1979 and a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Royal Academy in 1980.

Places

Subjects

Shakespeare, William, drama, "Macbeth", Macbeth, theatre, actor/actress, male portrait

Materials & Techniques

lithograph

Artist

Ruskin Spear (1911 - 1990)

Title

“Macbeth”: Out, out brief candle!

Portfolio Title

Shakespeare

Edition

22/50

Date

1964

Medium

Lithograph

Acquisition

Purchased from Editions Alecto, November 1965

Inscription

below image: [left] 22/50, [right] Sir Lawrence Olivier 'Macbeth' Stratford 1956 [lower right] Ruskin Spear above image: [right] 'Out out BriefCandle'

GAC number

7304