Hammersmith Bridge

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

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

England, River Thames, London, Hammersmith Bridge

Subjects

topography, townscape/cityscape, seagull, river, man, railing, bridge (urban)

Materials & Techniques

board, oil, oil painting

Artist

Ruskin Spear (1911 - 1990)

Title

Hammersmith Bridge

Date

Medium

Oil on board

Dimensions

height: 80.00 cm, width: 65.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Piccadilly Gallery, October 1961

GAC number

5640