Ruskin Spear, CBE, RA (30 June 1911 – 17 January 1990) was an English painter and teacher of art, regarded as one of the foremost British portrait painters of his day.Born in Hammersmith, Spear attended the local art school before going on to the Royal College of Art in 1930. He began his teaching career at Croydon School of Art, later teaching at the Royal College of Art from 1948 to 1975, where his students included Sandra Blow. Initially influenced by Walter Sickert, the Camden Town Group, and the portraiture of the Euston Road School, his work often has a narrative quality, with elements of humour and satire. As one of the thirty eightOfficial War Artists in Britain in the Second World War, between 1942–44, Spear was commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee, under the chairm