Francis Spear:
Discarded shoes, circa 1925
Framed (ref: 5758)
Etching on paper

Tags: Francis Spear etching still lifes TOP 100 1.PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST Golden Generation RCA Realism

Provenance: Simon Spear, the artist’s son

Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.47.

Francis Howard Spear (1902-1979) was a printmaker and a stained glass artist who attended the Royal College of Art with Bawden, Ravilious in the mid 1920's and later went onto teach at the School. 

The V&A holds examples of his stained glass and a number of designs for stained glass, and his coloured lithographic print Horse Race.

Spear enjoyed finding the beauty in everyday object and everyday scenes.  Haystacks were a frequent motif in Spear's outdoor compositions - so much so that his friends called him 'Haystacks Spear'.