Birds and Flowers

Shephard was born in London and studied at the Slade School of Art, run by the legendary Professor Henry Tonks who was rigorous in his teaching and encouraged first and foremost meticulous draughtsmanship which is evident in Shephard’s work. His contemporaries at the Slade included William Coldstream, Claude Rodgers and Victor Pasmore, and he went on to set up the Euston Road School of Drawing and Painting with Coldstream and Rodgers in 1937. 

During the Second World War he was appointed an Official War Artist covering the home front, and several of his works from this period are in the Imperial War Museum.  In the 1940s he really hit his stride and exhibited widely in West End galleries, his subjects often London scenes which he was to return to later in his 1960s linocuts.  He moved to Cape Town in 1968 where he worked as the Professor and Director of the Michaelis School of Art in the University of Cape Town.  It was here that he returned to etching and lithography, in particular working on 4 colour linocuts, and the light and landscapes of South Africa were a huge influence on his art.

In the 60s he returned to London and set up a studio in World’s End, just off the King’s Road. He worked in many different mediums but a large proportion of his linocuts date from this period, including ‘London Series’, followed by ‘Bird Series’, of which this is an example.  In 1972 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.  In his obituary Shephard was described as ‘as an outstanding exponent of that English school of painting – sharply and warmly observed, scrupulously true to visual truth, understated but intimate – which was disregarded for so long, but which is again winning respect as a true national movement’ (Obituary, The Times, March 21st 1992).

Medium: Linocut

Signed: Yes and numbered 1/200

Size: 40 x 50cm