Woman refuelling engines at the Roundhouse, North London

A woman wearing overalls is shown maintaining locomotives at the Roundhouse Engine Shed in North London. The Roundhouse was built in 1846 as an engine repair shed and has since been put to various uses, including a gin company warehouse. Today, it is an arts venue.

Following the involvement of women in both World War I and World War II, the sight of women engaged in typically male-dominant work was becoming more familiar. At the date of Clifford Rowe's sketch, this image of a woman involved in heavy-duty labour would have provided quite a contrast with the domestic images of 1950s housewives perpetuated by magazines and television. The emphasis in Rowe's drawing is on the figure of the woman and the background is only loosely conveyed by comparison.

An artist and illustrator, Rowe trained at the Wimbledon School of Art and at the Royal College of Art. He was politically active and by the early 1930s, was designing Communist Party publications. He became a long-term member of Communist Party and travelled to the Soviet Union.

Upon his return to England, Rowe helped to establish the Artists' International Association and received commissions from trade unions, including the Electrical Trade Union. Many of his works, which include large oil paintings, focus on the working life of individuals and industry in general.