like propaganda, rather than an image of Loftus going about her usual work. According to the cultural historian Barbara Morden, Loftus is depicted as "a young and attractive woman"; 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. 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. 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. 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. According to Foss her workspace is "clean and efficient-looking", 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". 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. The clothing worn by the women carries a patriotic tone, according to the art historian Mike McKiernan, as reds, whites and blues dominate. 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. 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". In this manner, the painting is similar to many examples of British wartime cinema that depicted the working class in an unsentimental manner. Reception Ruby Loftus was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition on 30 April 1943. Loftus was present that day to see the picture, and was interviewed by the press about her involvement. The following day the painting was reproduced in several national newspapers. The critic for The Times thought the picture had "a certain brutal vigour", that made it "hard