Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech-ring is a 1943 painting by the British artist Laura Knight depicting a young woman, Ruby Loftus, working at an industrial lathe cutting the screw of a breech-ring for a Bofors anti-aircraft gun. The painting was commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee as part of the British war effort in the Second World War. 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. Background During the Second World War the British government formed the War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC) under the chairmanship of Sir Kenneth Clark, the director of the National Gallery. The committee was "to draw up a list of artists qualified to record the war at home and abroad". One of those commissioned on several occasions was the British painter Laura Knight, who had painted for the Canadian government during the First World War. Discontent within the factory workforce lead to strikes in the UK in the lead up to January 1943. According to the social research organisation Mass-Observation, women working in war production considered their abilities to be under used, and that potential employees perceived factory girls to be "low class, rough, dirty and immoral". 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. 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. 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". 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". Knight offered