Sir David Willcocks took over as the Director of the Royal College of Music (RCM) in 1974, and held the position for 10 years. A highly distinguished organist and conductor, he served at various points in his career as the organist of Salisbury and Worcester Cathedrals, and the conductor of the London Bach Choir. He is perhaps best known for his association with King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, where he greatly developed and enlarged the choir’s repertoire, and toured extensively with them in Europe and further abroad. As he approached retirement in 1984, Willcocks was offered the opportunity to choose an artist to produce a portrait of him, under the auspices of the RCM Council. The painter he eventually chose was Ruskin Spear (1911–1990), a highly successful – if often controversial – artist whose portraiture was based in many instances upon photojournalism.