Loftus was a 21-year-old woman who had quickly become an expert in the production of breech-rings—in seven months, rather than the several years it normally took. The painting was commissioned to promote women's work in factories; women dominate the picture, and only one man is visible, in the background. When unveiled at the 1943 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the painting was extremely popular, and was voted the picture of the exhibition. The image was reproduced in a large-scale poster version by the WAAC for display in factories across the country.
Discontent within the factory workforce lead to strikes in the UK in the lead up to January 1943.[4] According to the social research organisation Mass-Observation, women working in war production considered their abilities to be under used,[5] and that potential employees perceived factory girls to be "low class, rough, dirty and immoral".[6] Women, in particular, were more likely to be absent from work than men, with childcare and running the household the probable reasons, according to the art historian Brian Foss.[5] With a shortage in the number of women working in the factories, the Ministry of Production pushed for the war artists to depict production workers.[7]
Knight was commissioned to paint Ruby Loftus in late 1942. She was a machine operator described by the Ministry of Supply as "an outstanding factory worker".[8] Knight, who was working on A Balloon Site, Coventry, turned down the fee of 75 guineas, negotiating 100 guineas plus expenses; even the higher figure was, she said "infinitely lower than I should ask for any other work than that connected to the war".[lower-alpha 1][10][lower-alpha 2] Knight offered to accept the 75 guinea fee, but only if it could be painted in her studio.[10] The WAAC responded that, although they were grateful that she was working at a much lower level of fees than her pre-war rates, the policy was that all work commissioned was "on a virtually fixed scale of fees irrespective of the status of the artist".[10] The committee added that as Loftus was too valuable to be released from the factory, they would agree to Knight's 100 guinea request; she travelled to Newport, Wales, to paint the portrait in situ over three weeks.[11][12] The work was completed by the end of March.[10]
Loftus and her family moved to South Wales after their home in Golders Green, London was bombed. She was employed by the Royal Ordnance Factory in Newport (ROF Newport), having previously been an assistant at a tobacconist's shop in Finchley, London. In 1943 she was 21 years old and engaged to John Green, a corporal in the 11th Hussars.[9][13] Loftus had no prior experience of heavy machinery or the industrial workplace, but she became highly skilled in seven months in making the breech-ring of the Bofors anti-aircraft gun. This was the most complex task at ROF Newport and any lack of precision in forming the breech-ring could result in the gun being destroyed when fired; the task was normally assigned to a worker with up to nine years' experience.[9][8][14]
Description
Detail showing Loftus's face focusing on her work
Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech-ring is an oil painting on canvas measuring 86.3 by 101.9 centimetres (2.83ft ×3.34ft). It is one of the largest pictures of the wartime commissions, and the largest of the single-figure portraits they acquired.[5] The painting is in the realist style;[15][16][lower-alpha 3] the cultural historian Gillian Whiteley considers the painting resembles the works of the Soviet socialist realists, and provides "an authoritative, optimistic, heroic and popular inspirational image".[17] The picture shows Loftus, bent over the lathe, which is in the act of cutting the screw of the breech. Her fingers rest on the machinery as she concentrates on the work she is doing.[15] According to the cultural historian Barbara Morden, Ruby Loftus is similar to other works by Knight in showing a female worker focused on her work.[12] The art historian Catherine Speck writes that Loftus's feminine features and clean hands "affirm the temporary nature of... [Loftus's] work 'for the duration'" of the war; in this way the painting feels to Speck more like propaganda, rather than an image of Loftus going about her usual work.[18]
According to the cultural historian Barbara Morden, Loftus is depicted as "a young and attractive woman";[19] with brown curly hair not quite contained under a green headscarf or snood. She wears paint-splattered overalls and make-up, the latter emphasising her femininity.[19][20][21] By leaning over the workbench her face is placed in the horizontal centre of the picture, accentuating her importance. Her face is highlighted with the reflection of the light shining on the wet metal.[22][12] The social historian Elizabeth de Cacqueray observes that Loftus's head and the highlighted metal disk face each other along the diagonal of the picture, with Loftus's head scarf and face repeated ovals that reflect each other.[15]
The painting shows Loftus cutting the screw threads which would attach the barrel to the breech housing of the gun as sparks and water droplets come off the lathe.[12] According to Foss her workspace is "clean and efficient-looking",[5] while the natural approach to the work—and the level of technical details captured in the picture—"had the desired effect of testifying to Loftus's exploit [of being expert at her work] being an indisputable fact".[23]
Detail of the background, showing one man among the working women; the patriotic colours of red, white and blue are repeated throughout
The background of the painting shows the rest of factory floor, populated with women working at their benches; there is one man present, probably the foreman, given that he wears a tie.[24][21] The clothing worn by the women carries a patriotic tone, according to the art historian Mike McKiernan, as reds, whites and blues dominate.[25] According to the cultural historian Lindsey Robb, the painting—along with Frank Dobson's 1944 work An Escalator in an Underground Factory—"reinforce the representation of industrial work as female" during wartime.[24]
According to the art historians Teresa Grimes, Judith Collins and Oriana Baddeley, Knight adopts what they call a "documentary approach" to the machinery that "has the verisimilitude of a photograph but makes a far more powerful impact".[16] In this manner, the painting is similar to many examples of British wartime cinema that depicted the working class in an unsentimental manner.[16]
Ruby Loftus was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition on 30 April 1943.[26] Loftus was present that day to see the picture, and was interviewed by the press about her involvement.[13] The following day the painting was reproduced in several national newspapers.[26][lower-alpha 4] The critic for The Times thought the picture had "a certain brutal vigour", that made it "hard to take in all the detail without strain";[27] W. T. Oliver, writing in The Yorkshire Post found "little pleasure in Dame Laura's brand of realism", but admired "her energy, her disciplined thoroughness and conviction".[28]
A "Warwork News" newsreel featuring the painting, Knight and Loftus, was released into Britain's cinemas on 10 May 1943;[29][30] Loftus found herself in the public eye and quickly famous from the coverage,[26] although shop stewards from Woolwich Arsenal, disbelieving the stories of Loftus's prowess in the task, travelled to Newport to check on her skills. They returned satisfied.[31]
Ruby Loftus was shown at the 1947 Engineering and Marine Exhibition at the Olympia Exhibition Centre.[32] The picture was also reproduced in a large-scale poster version by the WAAC; it was displayed in factories across the country. It became one of the most well-known and popular works commissioned by the WAAC.[10][33][26]
The picture shows a woman doing what was traditionally a man's job,[34] and, according to Grimes, Collins and Baddeley, helped to popularise a "new, active image of femininity".[16] In this respect it has been likened to the American figure of "Rosie the Riveter";[35][36]Norman Rockwell's picture of Rosie appeared on 29 May 1943—a month after Ruby Loftus was first exhibited. According to Foss, "despite the similarity in their two names... these two wartime icons could hardly be more different.[22]
Legacy
Knight circa 1910
Loftus married Lance Corporal John Green in September 1943, and took her husband's surname. After the war, she was offered an opportunity to take an engineering course, but decided against it and emigrated to Canada with her husband, eventually settling in Winfield, British Columbia, Canada.[25][30] In British Columbia, she worked as an apple packer, in a post office and as a correspondent for a local newspaper. She travelled to London to see her portrait in the Imperial War Museum in May 1962, where she was accompanied by Knight. She was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Loftus's husband died in 2003, and she died in June 2004 at the age of 83.[25][30] In 2015 Loftus Garden Village, a housing development named after her, was built on the site of ROF Newport.[37]
Looking back at the works Knight painted for the WAAC, Clark wrote to her "The pictures you have done for us have been an immense success from every point of view".[38] The success of the painting led to further industrial commissions for Knight throughout the 1940s. In 1945 she painted Switch Works at Ellison Switchgear in Birmingham. This was followed by paintings of operations at the Dow Mac concrete railway-sleeper works and at the Skefko ball bearing factory.[39] In 1946 she visited Germany under the auspices of the Nuremberg war crimes trials where she painted The Nuremberg Trial.[40]
The painting returned to Newport in 2006 for display as part of a project recording the recollections of women who had worked at the Royal Ordnance Factory.[41] Throughout 2013 and 2014 the painting was lent by the Imperial War Museum for display at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and then at the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, as part of the Laura Knight Portraits exhibition.[42] As at 2024, the painting is held in the Imperial War Museums' collection.[1]
↑ Foss says Knight was commissioned in October 1942;[9] the art historians Catherine Speck and Kathleen Palmer say it was in December.[10][8]
↑ Foss states that before the war Knight would have accepted commissions of about 400 guineas for a large canvas work (as the portrait of Loftus was).[5]
↑ The art historians Teresa Grimes, Judith Collins and Oriana Baddeley consider it "heightened realism;[16] the social historian Elizabeth de Cacqueray calls it "strongly realist".[15]
Bernard Hailstone was an English painter, best known for his Second World War portraits of transport and civil defence workers painted in Britain, his portraits of members of the Armed Forces painted overseas and his post-war portraits of the royal family, musicians, stage and film actors.
The Women's Army Corps (WAC) was the women's branch of the United States Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) on 15 May 1942, and converted to an active duty status in the Army of the United States as the WAC on 1 July 1943. Its first director was Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby. The WAC was disbanded on 20 October 1978, and all WAC units were integrated with male units.
Events from the year 1943 in art.
Dame Laura Knight was an English artist who worked in oils, watercolours, etching, engraving and drypoint. Knight was a painter in the figurative, realist tradition, who embraced English Impressionism. In her long career, Knight was among the most successful and popular painters in Britain. Her success in the male-dominated British art establishment paved the way for greater status and recognition for female artists.
Sir Walter Thomas Monnington PRA was an English painter, notable for several large murals, his work as a war artist and for his presidency of the Royal Academy.
Royal Ordnance Factory Newport, commonly known as ROF Newport, was a World War II munitions factory in Wales that produced guns. The factory began construction in 1940 and was completed within a year, producing its first weapons by January 1941. The site employed around 2,000 people during the war in the manufacture of anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons; one of the main weapons built at the factory was the Bofors 40 mm gun.
Evelyn Mary Dunbar was a British artist, illustrator and teacher. She is notable for recording women's contributions to World War II on the United Kingdom home front, particularly the work of the Women's Land Army. She was the only woman working for the War Artists' Advisory Committee on a full-time salaried basis. Dunbar had a deep devotion to nature and a particular affection for the landscape of Kent. Dunbar was modest regarding her achievements and outside of the post-war mainstream art world which has led to some neglect of her work until recent years. She painted murals at Brockley County Secondary School, and was a member of the Society of Mural Painters. After the war she painted portraits, allegorical pictures and especially landscapes. She attempted a return to mural painting in 1958 with a commission at Bletchley Park Teacher Training College, but was unable to fulfil the original specification.
Eric Henri Kennington was an English sculptor, artist and illustrator, and an official war artist in both of the world wars.
British official war artists were a select group of artists who were employed on contract, or commissioned to produce specific works during the First World War, the Second World War and select military actions in the post-war period. Official war artists have been appointed by governments for information or propaganda purposes and to record events on the battlefield; but there are many other types of war artist.
Leslie James Cole was a British artist and teacher. He served as a war artist from 1942 to 1946 during which time he recorded events in several theatres of war and also the aftermath of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Stella Schmolle, was a British painter, known for the paintings she produced while serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II and for her post-war portrait paintings.
The War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artistic record of Britain throughout the war. This was achieved both by appointing official war artists, on full-time or temporary contracts and by acquiring artworks from other artists. When the committee was dissolved in December 1945 its collection consisted of 5,570 works of art produced by over four hundred artists. This collection was then distributed to museums and institutions in Britain and around the world, with over half of the collection, some 3,000 works, going to the Imperial War Museum.
Michael Ford was an English artist who worked in several media and whose paintings often have a somewhat naive quality coupled with elements of minute, detailed observation.
Thomas Anthony Devas was a British portrait painter who was associated with members of the Euston Road School.
Dorothy Josephine Coke was an English artist notable for her work as a war artist on the British home front during the Second World War. Coke was also an art teacher and as an artist was known for her watercolours, which have a very free, open-air quality to them.
Leila Elizabeth Josephine Worsley was a British artist, who throughout her career worked in a variety of media and who is best known for the artworks she produced during the Second World War, depicting events in Britain.
Self Portrait with Nude is an oil-on-canvas painting executed in 1913 by the English artist Laura Knight. A mature work, painted when Knight was 36 years old, it was controversial for its subject matter: a female artist painting a nude female life model. The painting was retained by Knight until her death in 1970, and bought by the National Portrait Gallery in 1971: the gallery has described it as "a bravura statement about the ability of women to paint hitherto taboo subjects on a scale and with an intensity, that heralds changes".
A Balloon Site, Coventry is an oil-on-canvas painting undertaken in 1942 by the British artist Laura Knight. It portrays a group of people—mostly women—working to launch a barrage balloon on the outside of Coventry, an industrial city in the Midlands that was the target of a German bombing raid in November 1940, when over 10,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on the city.
Take Off is an oil-on-canvas painting by English artist Laura Knight, created in 1943. It is one of the several works that she made when she was one of the British official war artists during World War II. It is held at the Imperial War Museum, in London.
Corporal J. D. M. Pearson, GC, WAAF is an oil-on-canvas painting by English artist Laura Knight, created in 1940. The painting was made in tribute to Corporal Daphne Pearson, who had been involved in the rescuing of a pilot of a crashed airplane the same year. It is held at the Imperial War Museum, in London.
Fox, Caroline (1988). Dame Laura Knight. Oxford: Phaidon Press. ISBN978-0-7148-2447-5.
Grimes, Teresa; Collins, Judith; Baddeley, Oriana (1991). Five Women Painters. Harpenden, Herts: Lennard. ISBN978-1-85291-101-0.
Harries, Meirion; Harries, Susie (1983). The War Artists: British Official War Art of the Twentieth Century. London: M. Joseph in association with the Imperial War Museum and the Tate Gallery.
Palmer, Kathleen (2011). Women War Artists. London: Tate Gallery. ISBN978-1-8543-7989-4.
Robb, Lindsey (2017). "'Fighting In Their Ways'? The Civilian Man in British Culture, 1939–1945". In Crowley, Mark J.; Trudgen Dawson, Sandra (eds.). Home Fronts: Britain and the Empire at War, 1939–45. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. pp.146–164. ISBN978-1-78327-225-9.
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