This is a half-length portrait of Lieutenant G.D.M Milner seated against a bare, off-white background. He looking at the viewer, the hint of a smile on his lips and his arms folded. It seems that the artist, William Dring, spent a little longer working on Milner’s face than the rest of the portrait, as the finish is slightly more polished. The scene is lit from the top right of the picture plane and Milner’s left hand side is in shadow. His rank as a lieutenant is indicated by the embroidered insignia on the cuffs of his sleeves. The drawing is signed and dated by the artist and is still in the original mount and frame from the War Artist’s Advisory Committee. At the bottom left hand side the mount is labelled number ‘521’, a label which remains from the WAAC exhibition at which it was first exhibited. [The original WAAC inventory number is LD. 2166]

William Dring (1904-90) earned his reputation as a fine draughtsman and portrait painter whilst studying under Henry Tonks at the Slade School of Art between 1922 and 1925. He worked as a teacher of drawing and painting at the Southampton School of Art until 1940 when he was employed by the WAAC, first as official war artist to the Admiralty and later to the Air Ministry. He made a large number of portrait drawings of individuals and groups, all remarkable for their informality. Dring travelled extensively to complete his commissions. The drawing is always precise and carefully modelled using pastel, a medium in which he specialised, and which allowed him to capture the likeness and spirit of his subjects quickly and under a variety of circumstances.