Background
Shephard was born in Islington, the son of an engineer and a charity worker, who were both Quakers and keen amateur artists.
Shephard was born in Islington, the son of an engineer and a charity worker, who were both Quakers and keen amateur artists.
He attended Repton School, before studying at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1926 to 1929.
After graduating from the Slade, Shephard taught at Raynes Park County School whilst painting at night and often in pubs and music halls. In 1929, he began to exhibit with the London Group at both the Wertheim Gallery and the Coolings Gallery. Shephard held his first solo exhibition at the Calman Gallery in 1939.
From 1940 to 1943, Shephard worked as an industrial draughtsman but continued to paint and submitted several paintings, on industrial production topics, to the War Artists" Advisory Committee, WAAC. These included a series of five pictures, Women in Industry and a scene inside an aircraft repair workshop.
In the spring of 1945, WAAC offered Shephard a full-time contract with the Ministry of War Transport, which he completed with a number of scenes painted in London. Shephard spent fifteen years in South Africa as the director of the Michaelis Art School at the University of Cape Town.
He had ten solo exhibitions in South Africa and also exhibited internationally. In 1965 Shephard married Nicolette Macnamara, an artist, whose sister, Caitlin, was the widow of Dylan Thomas.
In 1972 Shephard was elected to Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
Shephard continued to paint portraits and exhibition pieces but failing eyesight ended his career in 1990 and two years later he died of cancer in London. Collections holding works by Rupert Shephard include the Imperial War Museum, the Royal Air Force Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and the British Museum.
Throughout 1937 to 1939 Shephard exhibited with the founding members of the Euston Road School, William Coldstream, Claude Rogers and Victor Pasmore at the Storran Gallery whilst continuing to exhibit with the London Group.