Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Villagers and Saints, c. 1933
Oil on canvas
H 88.3 x W 158.7 cm
University of Hull Art Collection
Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was born in Cookham, Berkshire, the eighth surviving child of William and Anna Caroline Spencer. His father was a music teacher and church organist. Stanley's younger brother, Gilbert Spencer (1892–1979), also became a notable artist, known principally for his landscape paintings. Stanley Spencer was educated at home by his sisters. Gilbert and Stanley took drawing lessons from a local artist, Dorothy Bailey.
From 1908 to 1912, Spencer studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. His contemporaries at the Slade included Dora Carrington, Maxwell Gordon Lightfoot, Mark Gertler, Paul Nash, Edward Wadsworth, Isaac Rosenberg and David Bomberg.
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Neighbours, c. 1936
Oil on canvas
H 76 x W 51 cm
Stanley Spencer Gallery
This is one of nine pictures in the ‘Domestic Scenes’ series of 1935-6, which concentrated on his childhood and marriage to his first wife Hilda Carline; the ‘Domestic Scenes’ were also a part of the ‘Marriage at Cana’ section of the ‘Church House’. Painted from a characteristically high viewpoint, it commemorates the occasions when his elder sister Annie exchanged gifts with her cousin over the hedge at ‘Fernlea’. In this case she receives tulips from the garden at ‘Belmont’ (on the left). Spencer commented on the picture to his dealer Dudley Tooth, ‘It shows the privet hedge which divided our garden from the cousins’ next door. Beyond the wall is the orchard. I do not remember much in the way of flowers in the garden but there were plenty in the next door garden, the family being a family of girls.’ The painting was taken from a squared-up illustration for April in the Chatto & Windus Almanack. More on this painting
In 1912 Spencer exhibited the painting John Donne Arriving in Heaven and some drawings in the British section of the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition organised by Roger Fry in London. The same year he painted The Nativity. (See below) for which he won a Slade Composition Prize and he also began painting Apple Gatherers, which was shown in the first Contemporary Art Society exhibition the following year. In 1914 Spencer completed Zacharias and Elizabeth and The Centurion's Servant (See below).
The story of Zacharias and Elizabeth occurs at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel. The priest Zacharias is visited by the Archangel Gabriel while he is making a sacrifice by burning incense in the Temple. Gabriel tells him that although his wife Elizabeth is too old to have children, she will bear a son given to her by God who will become John the Baptist.
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
The Nativity, c. 1912
Oil on canvas stuck onto plywood panel
H 101.2 x W 152.4 cm
UCL Art Museum
"The couple occupy the centre of the picture, Joseph who is to the extreme right doing something to the chestnut tree and Mary who stands by the manger; they appear in their relationship with the elements generally, so that Mary to the couple in contact with one another seems like some preonderating element of life, just another big fact of nature such as a tree or a waterfall or a field or a river. Joseph is only related to Mary in this picture by some sacramental ordinance... This relationship has always interested me and in those early works I contemplated a lot of those unbearable relationships between men and women." Stanley Spencer
Sir Stanley Spencer 1891–1959
Zacharias and Elizabeth and The Centurion's Servant, c. 1913–14
Oil paint and graphite on canvas
1426 × 1428 × 24 mm
Tate
The story of Zacharias and Elizabeth occurs at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel. The priest Zacharias is visited by the Archangel Gabriel while he is making a sacrifice by burning incense in the Temple. Gabriel tells him that although his wife Elizabeth is too old to have children, she will bear a son given to her by God who will become John the Baptist.
Zacharias and Elizabeth is a large square oil painting by the British artist Stanley Spencer depicting the biblical story of the two titular figures that is featured in Luke’s Gospel. In the foreground of the composition is Zacharias who is holding a pair of tongs over a flame, while another aged male, the Archangel Gabriel,approaches him stealthily from behind. The figure of Zacharias is also repeated behind a wood and metal fence. Elizabeth stands to his right with her arms outstretched. A large, smooth, curved wall divides the painting vertically, separating these two scenes. The figure of Elizabeth appears again behind the wall, with only her upper body visible. Two further figures are also depicted in the painting: a gardener who resembles traditional representations of both Jesus and John the Baptist is seen at the right dragging an ivy branch, a conventional symbol of everlasting life and Resurrection, and an unidentified woman wearing a dark claret dress kneels behind a gravestone while touching the curved dividing wall with her right hand. More on this painting
In 1915 Spencer volunteered to serve with the Royal Army Medical Corps, RAMC, and worked as an orderly at the Beaufort War Hospital, Bristol. After thirteen months at Beaufort, the RAMC transferred Spencer to overseas duties. He left Beaufort in May 1916 and after ten weeks' training at Tweseldown Camp in Hampshire, the 24-year-old Spencer was sent to Macedonia, with the 68th Field Ambulance unit. In all, Spencer spent two and a half years on the front line in Macedonia, facing both German and Bulgarian troops, before he was invalided out of the Army following persistent bouts of malaria. His survival of the war that killed so many of his fellows indelibly marked Spencer's attitude to life and death. Such preoccupations came through time and again in his subsequent works.
This painting shows an annual ritual on the Thames that continues to this day. Unmarked swans on the river belong to the British Crown. Those owned by two guilds, the Companies of Vintners and Dyers, are marked in a ‘swan upping’ ceremony every year. Here the swans are being brought ashore at Cookham. Spencer said he was inspired to make this work while he was in church and could hear people on the river outside: ‘the village seemed as much a part of the atmosphere prevalent in the church as the most holy part of the church.’ This fusion of the everyday and the divine was typical of his attitude to his Christian faith. More on this painting
Spencer returned to England at the end of 1918 and went back to his parents at Fernlea in Cookham, where he completed Swan Upping, the painting he had left unfinished when he enlisted. Swan Upping was first exhibited at the New English Art Club in 1920 and was bought by J. L. Behrend. Spencer had begun the painting by making a small oil study and several drawings from memory before visiting Turks Boatyard beside Cookham Bridge to confirm his composition. Spencer worked systematically from top to bottom on the canvas but had only completed the top two-thirds of the picture when he had to leave it in 1915. Returning to the work Spencer found it difficult to continue after his war-time experiences, often stating "It is not proper or sensible to expect to paint after such experience."
Spencer lived in Cookham until April 1920 when he moved to Bourne End to stay with the trade union lawyer Henry Slesser and his wife. While there, he worked on a series of paintings for their private oratory. In all, during the year he spent at the Slessor's home, Spencer painted some twenty pictures including Christ Carrying the Cross (See above). In 1921 Spencer stayed with Muirhead Bone at Steep in Hampshire where he worked on mural designs for a village hall war memorial scheme which was never completed. In 1923 Spencer spent the summer in Poole, Dorset, with Henry Lamb.
In October 1923, Spencer started renting Henry Lamb's studio in Hampstead where he began work on The Resurrection, Cookham. In 1925, Spencer married Hilda Carline, a former student. A daughter, Shirin, was born in November of that year and a second daughter, Unity, in 1930.
In February 1927 Spencer held his first one-man exhibition at the Goupil Gallery. The centre piece of the exhibition was The Resurrection, Cookham (See below) which received rave reviews in the British press. The Times' art critic described it as "the most important picture painted by any English artist in the present century. ... What makes it so astonishing is the combination in it of careful detail with the modern freedom of form. It is as if a Pre-Raphaelite had shaken hands with a Cubist."
As a devout Christian, Spencer believed in a joyful day of resurrection. Everyone would be raised from the dead to receive judgement or glory. Here he depicts this taking place in the churchyard of Cookham, the Berkshire village where he lived. God and Christ watch as people emerge from their graves. Most of the white people are local friends or specific biblical figures. By contrast, Spencer represents the group of Black people at the centre of the painting in a generalising way. They are not based on people he knew, but on images he saw in National Geographic magazine. Spencer intended to show that all humanity would be included in the resurrection, but in trying to make this point he reinforced racist stereotypes and divisions accepted at the time by most white British people. More on this painting
To the left of the church some of the resurrected are climbing over a stile, others are making their way to the river to board a Thames pleasure boat, others are simply inspecting their headstones. Spencer created the picture in the early years of his marriage to Carline and she appears three times in the picture. Overall, the Goupil exhibition was a great success with thirty-nine of the displayed paintings being sold. The Resurrection, Cookham was purchased by Lord Duveen, who presented it to the Tate. After the exhibition Spencer moved to Burghclere to begin work on the Sandham Memorial Chapel for the Behrends.
The sixteen paintings in the chapel are double hung on opposite walls akin to the progression of altarpieces in a Renaissance church nave. The series begins with a lunette depicting shell-shocked troops arriving at the gates of Beaufort, continues with a scene of kit inspection at the RAMC Training Depot in Hampshire which is followed by scenes of Macedonia. Spencer did not depict heroism and sacrifice, but rather in panels such as Scrubbing the Floor, Bedmaking, Filling Tea Urns and Sorting and Moving Kit Bags, the unremarkable everyday facts of daily life in camp or hospital and a sense of human companionship rarely found in civilian life as he remembered events from Beaufort, Macedonia and Tweseldown Camp. Such is the absence of violence in the panels, The Dugout panel was based on Spencer's thought of "how marvellous it would be if one morning, when we came out of our dug-outs, we found that somehow everything was peace and the war was no more." The scene, Map Reading offers a contrast to the dark earth of the hospital and military camps in the other panels and shows a company of soldiers resting by a roadside paying little attention to the only officer depicted among the hundreds of figures Spencer painted for the chapel. Bilberry bushes fill the background of the painting, making the scene appear green and Arcadian which seems to prefigure the paradise promised in the Resurrection of the Soldiers on the end, altar, wall. Spencer imagined the Resurrection of the Soldiers taking place outside the walled village of Kalinova in Macedonia with soldiers rising out of their graves and handing in identical white crosses to a Christ figure towards the top of the wall. Working on the Memorial Chapel has been described as a six-year process of remembrance and exorcism for Spencer and he explained the emphasis on the colossal resurrection scene, "I had buried so many people and saw so many bodies that I felt death could not be the end of everything."
While working at Burghclere, Spencer also undertook other small commissions including a series of five paintings, on the theme of Industry and Peace, for the Empire Marketing Board in 1929, which were not used, and a series of 24 pen-and-ink sketches for a 1927 Almanack. Much later in his life Spencer adapted seven of these sketches into paintings including The Dustbin, Cookham (See below).
In 1929 Spencer had met the artist Patricia Preece, and he soon became infatuated with her. Preece was a young fashion-conscious artist who had lived in Cookham since 1927 with her lesbian partner, the artist Dorothy Hepworth. In 1933 she first modelled for Spencer and when he visited Switzerland that summer, to paint landscapes, Preece joined him there.
Spencer depicts his own and his wife’s body in a frank non-idealised manner. He pays close attention to the colours and textures of human skin which are contrasted with the flesh tones of the raw joint of mutton. The figures are seen close-up and compressed into the picture space which creates an uncomfortable sensation of intimacy in viewing the painting. Spencer contemplates the body of his wife, but despite the physical proximity of the figures there is a sense of distance and sexual tension. Spencer painted this work in the year that he and Preece married, but their relationship was already troubled. More on this painting
Spencer had at least two significant affairs during his life, one with Daphne Charlton while at Leonard Stanley, and the other with Charlotte Murray, a Jungian analyst, when he was working in Port Glasgow, and there were to be chapels dedicated to both of them.
Sir Stanley Spencer
Swan Upping at Cookham, c. 1915–19
Oil paint on canvas
1480 × 1162 mm
Tate
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta (unfinished), c. 1954–1959
Oil on canvas
H 200.6 x W 536 cm
Stanley Spencer Gallery
Spencer did not live to complete this last major work, which he planned as the central picture in the river aisle of his ‘Church House’. In a natural link between Cookham and religion, Christ preaches at the regatta the artist recalled from his boyhood. Sitting in the centre in a basket chair in the old horse ferry barge, by the Ferry Hotel near Cookham Bridge, Christ preaches to the assembled villagers. Mr Turk, in centre foreground, brandishes an impressive array of boating equipment. Dressed in holiday outfits the crowd sport the Chinese lanterns which illuminated the boats in the evening. Class distinctions between the people in boats and those who had to make do on the bank are nicely maintained. The luxury of a punt, unknown in the Spencer family, seemed to the artist ‘an unattainable Eden’. Spencer wrote in a letter of the contrast between Christ and ‘the stalwart, prosperous, white-trousered proprietor of the Hotel’ surveying the profitable scene from his lawn. Sixty chalk drawings made in 1952 form the basis of the present picture, which displays Spencer’s skill in composing complex figure subjects. The studies were transferred to canvas to create an outline drawing of great beauty. As the partially completed picture shows, Spencer painted one area before starting the next. He worked with his usual small brushes, his nose almost touching the paint. More on this painting
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, c.1920
Oil on canvas
H 114.2 x W 144.8 cm
Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Museums and Galleries
In the accounts of the four canonical Gospels, Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem takes place in the days before the Last Supper, marking the beginning of his Passion. Crowds gather around Jesus and believe in him after he raised Lazarus from the dead, and the next day the multitudes that had gathered for the feast in Jerusalem welcome Jesus as he enters Jerusalem. More on Jesus' entry into Jerusalem
The combination of the local and the religious are critical to Spencer's work and spiritual events often take place in his home village of Cookham and feature local people as in Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem (c.1920)
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Christ Overturning the Money Changers’ Table, c. 1921
Oil on canvas
997mm x 882mm
Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham
Jesus is stated to have visited the Temple in Jerusalem, where the courtyard is described as being filled with livestock, merchants, and the tables of the money changers. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade." More on the expulsion
Painted at the Slessers’ house in Bourne End this picture was designed to form the right wing of a triptych in their chapel. The left wing was to be ‘St Veronica unmasking Christ’ (no. 4), while the central panel was a larger version of the overturning theme, which depicts Christ’s cleansing of the temple. The chapel setting turned Spencer’s thoughts to Renaissance art and the triptych format, though in the event the works were never hung together in this way. More on this painting
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
The Last Supper, c. 1920
Oil on canvas
H 91.5 x W 122 cm
Stanley Spencer Gallery
Christ sits before the wall of the grain bin in a Cookham malt-house, while John rests against him at the moment of the breaking of the bread. The other disciples are ranged along the sides of a plain table, their limbs forming a strongly marked pattern. Spencer was pleased with the feeling of seclusion surrounding the sacred event. More on this painting
Sir Stanley Spencer
Christ Carrying the Cross, c. 1920
Oil paint on canvas
1530 × 1429 mm
1777 × 1670 × 68 mm
Tate
Here Spencer depicts a scene from the end of Christ’s life taking place in his own hometown. In the biblical account, Christ carries the cross through Jerusalem, but Spencer sets the scene in the English village of Cookham. Spencer believed that religious feeling was present in everyday settings and events. This painting was partly inspired by watching builders carrying ladders down a Cookham street. These figures are present in the painting, following behind Christ. The Virgin Mary sits by a railing in the foreground. The brick house is the artist’s family home. More on this painting
Sir Stanley Spencer
The Robing of Christ, c. 1922
Oil paint on wood
352 × 594 mm
Tate
A scene from the last days of Christ’s life. During the mocking of Christ he is dressed in a scarlet robe to be presented to the crowd who will decide his fate. Spencer concentrates on the drama and the pathos of Christ being roughly handled by one of the soldiers as he fits Christ’s arm awkwardly into the robe. More on the Robing of Christ
This and The Disrobing of Christ (See below) were planned as two of four panels for a predella to ‘The Betrayal’ (Ulster Museum, Belfast) and were painted at about the same time, 1922, whilst the artist was lodging in a teashop in Petersfield. The other predella panels are ‘The Last Supper’ (Mr and Mrs Victor Gollancz) and ‘Washing Peter's Feet’ (City Art Gallery, Carlisle). When completed, however, all four were found to be too large for their setting. More on this painting
Sir Stanley Spencer
The Disrobing of Christ, c. 1922
Oil paint on wood
359 × 635 mm
Tate
In 1919 Spencer was commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee of the Ministry of Information to paint a large work for a proposed, but never built, Hall of Remembrance. The resulting painting, Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing Station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916 (See below), now in the Imperial War Museum, was clearly the consequence of Spencer's experience in the medical corps.
Spencer, Stanley (Sir) (RA) (1891 - 1959)
Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing-Station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916, c. 1919
Oil on canvas
Height 1828, Width 2184
Imperial War Museums
Spencer served in the war with the 68th Field Ambulance in the Balkans. He later wrote that 'the wounded passed through the dressing stations in a never ending stream'. He was deeply religious, as I’ve indicated, and he also wrote, 'I meant it not as a scene of horror but a scene of redemption'. More on this painting
In October 1923, Spencer started renting Henry Lamb's studio in Hampstead where he began work on The Resurrection, Cookham. In 1925, Spencer married Hilda Carline, a former student. A daughter, Shirin, was born in November of that year and a second daughter, Unity, in 1930.
In February 1927 Spencer held his first one-man exhibition at the Goupil Gallery. The centre piece of the exhibition was The Resurrection, Cookham (See below) which received rave reviews in the British press. The Times' art critic described it as "the most important picture painted by any English artist in the present century. ... What makes it so astonishing is the combination in it of careful detail with the modern freedom of form. It is as if a Pre-Raphaelite had shaken hands with a Cubist."
Sir Stanley Spencer
The Resurrection, Cookham, c. 1924–7
Oil paint on canvas
2743 × 5486 mm
Tate
To the left of the church some of the resurrected are climbing over a stile, others are making their way to the river to board a Thames pleasure boat, others are simply inspecting their headstones. Spencer created the picture in the early years of his marriage to Carline and she appears three times in the picture. Overall, the Goupil exhibition was a great success with thirty-nine of the displayed paintings being sold. The Resurrection, Cookham was purchased by Lord Duveen, who presented it to the Tate. After the exhibition Spencer moved to Burghclere to begin work on the Sandham Memorial Chapel for the Behrends.
Stanley SPENCER
Parents resurrecting, c. 1933
Oil on canvas
71.3 × 104.3 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Stanley Spencer painting Parents Resurrecting in 1933
THE STANLEY SPENCER GALLERY ARCHIVE
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
The Resurrection: The Reunion of Families, c. 1945
Oil on canvas
H 76.2 x W 101.6 cm
Dundee Art Galleries and Museums Collection (Dundee City Council)
Displayed together, this series of paintings could succeed in creating an overwhelming impression of salvation. But, since they never have been exhibited together, it is hard to tell what effect this would have. More on The Resurrection
The Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere was a colossal undertaking. Spencer's paintings cover a twenty-one foot high, seventeen-and-half foot wide end wall, eight seven foot high lunettes, each above a predella, with two twenty-eight feet long irregularly shaped strips between the lunettes and the ceiling. The Behrends were exceptionally generous patrons and not only paid for the chapel to be built to Spencer's specifications but also paid the rent on the London studio where he completed The Resurrection, Cookham and built a house for him and Carline to live in nearby while working at Burghclere, as Spencer would be painting the canvases in situ. The chapel was designed to Spencer's specifications by the architect Lionel Pearson and was modelled on Giotto's Arena Chapel in Padua.
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Separating Fighting Swans, c.1932/1933
Oil on canvas
H 91.4 x W 72.5 cm
Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Museums and Galleries
In 1933, John Rothenstein, then director of Leeds City Art Gallery, secured the first work by Stanley Spencer for a public collection outside London. Separating Fighting Swans (c.1932/1933) is an exuberant painting featuring stylised figures and two angrily entwined swans. More on this painting
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
The Farm Gate, c. 1950
Oil on canvas
H 91.5 x W 58.5 cm
Royal Academy of Arts
Hilda and a youthful Stanley open the gate to let the cows into Ovey’s Farm, which was opposite Spencer’s childhood home ‘Fernlea’ in Cookham High Street. More on this painting
The sixteen paintings in the chapel are double hung on opposite walls akin to the progression of altarpieces in a Renaissance church nave. The series begins with a lunette depicting shell-shocked troops arriving at the gates of Beaufort, continues with a scene of kit inspection at the RAMC Training Depot in Hampshire which is followed by scenes of Macedonia. Spencer did not depict heroism and sacrifice, but rather in panels such as Scrubbing the Floor, Bedmaking, Filling Tea Urns and Sorting and Moving Kit Bags, the unremarkable everyday facts of daily life in camp or hospital and a sense of human companionship rarely found in civilian life as he remembered events from Beaufort, Macedonia and Tweseldown Camp. Such is the absence of violence in the panels, The Dugout panel was based on Spencer's thought of "how marvellous it would be if one morning, when we came out of our dug-outs, we found that somehow everything was peace and the war was no more." The scene, Map Reading offers a contrast to the dark earth of the hospital and military camps in the other panels and shows a company of soldiers resting by a roadside paying little attention to the only officer depicted among the hundreds of figures Spencer painted for the chapel. Bilberry bushes fill the background of the painting, making the scene appear green and Arcadian which seems to prefigure the paradise promised in the Resurrection of the Soldiers on the end, altar, wall. Spencer imagined the Resurrection of the Soldiers taking place outside the walled village of Kalinova in Macedonia with soldiers rising out of their graves and handing in identical white crosses to a Christ figure towards the top of the wall. Working on the Memorial Chapel has been described as a six-year process of remembrance and exorcism for Spencer and he explained the emphasis on the colossal resurrection scene, "I had buried so many people and saw so many bodies that I felt death could not be the end of everything."
While working at Burghclere, Spencer also undertook other small commissions including a series of five paintings, on the theme of Industry and Peace, for the Empire Marketing Board in 1929, which were not used, and a series of 24 pen-and-ink sketches for a 1927 Almanack. Much later in his life Spencer adapted seven of these sketches into paintings including The Dustbin, Cookham (See below).
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
The Dustbin, Cookham, c. 1956
Oil on canvas
H 76.8 x W 51.3 cm
Royal Academy of Arts
In 1929 Spencer had met the artist Patricia Preece, and he soon became infatuated with her. Preece was a young fashion-conscious artist who had lived in Cookham since 1927 with her lesbian partner, the artist Dorothy Hepworth. In 1933 she first modelled for Spencer and when he visited Switzerland that summer, to paint landscapes, Preece joined him there.
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Nude, Portrait of Patricia Preece, c. 1935
Oil on canvas
H 76.2 x W 50.8 cm
Ferens Art Gallery
Stanley Spencer 1891-1959
Self-portrait with Patricia Preece, 1937
Oil on canvas
61 x 91.2 cms
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Spencer first met Patricia Preece in Cookham in 1929. He went on to develop what he described as a ‘sort of religious fervour’ for Preece, whom he married shortly after divorcing his first wife, Hilda (Carline) in 1937. This is the first of two double nude portraits that Spencer painted of himself and Preece; the other, in Tate Britain, is known as the ‘Leg of Mutton’ (See below) nude as it includes in the portrait a leg of uncooked meat, symbolising the fact that his marriage to Preece was never consummated. More on this painting
Sir Stanley Spencer
Double Nude Portrait: The Artist and his Second Wife, c. 1937
Oil paint on canvas
838 × 937 mm
Tate
Sir Stanley Spencer
Daphne, c. 1940
Oil paint on canvas
610 × 508 mm
Tate
Daphne Charlton was a student at the Slade School of Art in London, as was Stanley Spencer, and her husband George taught there. The Charltons were introduced to Spencer in 1939 and from then on he often visited them at their Hampstead home. All three went on a painting holiday together in the summer of 1939 to Leonard Stanley, a remote village in Gloucestershire. During this stay Daphne Charlton painted Spencer's portrait. In April 1940, back in London, she sat for this portrait every day for about two to three weeks. The hat she wears was bought for three guineas in a shop in Bond Street in December 1939, especially for the sittings. Spencer painted another portrait of her without her hat. More on Daphne
Although the structure was never built, Spencer continually returned to the project throughout his life and continued to paint works for the building long after it had become clear it would never be constructed. His original scheme included three sequences of paintings, two of which The Marriage of Cana (See below) and The Baptism of Christ (See below) were completed. The Turkish Windows,(1934), and Love Among the Nations (See below), were designed as long friezes for the nave of the Church-House.
Francis of Assisi is a Christian saint associated with animals and the natural world. Accounts of his life include his ability to speak – even preach – to birds. Spencer based this depiction of the saint on drawings of his father feeding the ducks on a farm. The distortions of scale in this painting are part of Spencer’s personal visual style. His non-naturalistic approach was unpopular with some critics. The Royal Academy of Arts rejected this and another of his paintings from its 1935 summer exhibition. Spencer resigned his Academy membership in response. More on this painting
Stanley Spencer
Spencer made a return visit to Switzerland in 1935, and Patricia Preece (See above) travelled with him. When they returned to Cookham, Spencer's wife, Carline, moved to Hampstead, and his contact with his daughters became limited. Carline was growing increasingly despondent and hurt at Spencer's fixation with Preece. Between the middle of 1935 and 1936 Spencer painted a series of nine pictures, known as the Domestic Scenes in which he recalled, or re-imagined, life with Carline at home. While Spencer was painting these, Carline, as shown by her letters from the time, finally started divorce proceedings and a decree absolute was issued in May 1937.
A week later Spencer married Preece; she, however, continued to live with Hepworth, and refused to consummate the marriage. When Spencer's bizarre relationship with Preece finally fell apart, she refused to grant him a divorce. Spencer would often visit Carline, and he continued to do so throughout her subsequent mental breakdown and until her death from cancer in November 1950.
In a futile attempt to be reconciled with Carline, Spencer went to stay with her in Hampstead for ten days. Her rejection of this approach is the basis of Hilda, Unity and Dolls (See above), which Spencer painted during that visit. During the winter of 1937, alone in Southwold, Suffolk, Spencer begin a series of paintings, The Beatitudes of Love, about ill-matched couples. These pictures, and others of often radical sexual imagery, were intended for cubicles in the Church-House where the visitor could "meditate on the sanctity and beauty of sex". When Sir Edward Marsh, Spencer's early patron, was shown these paintings his response was "Terrible, terrible Stanley!".
In October 1938 Spencer had to leave Cookham and moved to London, spending six weeks with John Rothenstein before moving to a bedsit in Swiss Cottage. There was now no realistic hope of reconciliation with Carline and he was already distanced from Preece, who had rented out Lindworth so effectively evicting Spencer. At this low point Spencer painted four of the canvases in the Christ in the Wilderness series. He originally intended to paint a series of 40, one representing each day of Jesus's sojourn in the wilderness, but in the end only eight were completed and a ninth was left unfinished. By September 1939, he was staying at Leonard Stanley in Gloucestershire with the artists George and Daphne Charlton. Spencer created many important works in his room above the bar of the White Hart Inn which he used as a studio, including Us in Gloucestershire and The Wool Shop. While in Gloucestershire, Spencer also began a series of over 100 pencil works, now known as the Scrapbook Drawings, which he continued to add to for at least ten years.
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Since late in 1938, Spencer's agent, Dudley Tooth had been managing Spencer's finances and when the Second World War broke out he wrote to E.M.O'R. Dickey, the secretary of the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, seeking employment for Spencer. In May 1940 WAAC sent Spencer to the Lithgows Shipyard in Port Glasgow on the River Clyde to depict the civilians at work there. Spencer became fascinated by what he saw and sent WAAC proposals for a scheme involving up to sixty-four canvases displayed on all four sides of a room. WAAC agreed to a more modest series of up to eleven canvases, some of which would be up to six metres long. The first two of these, Burners and Caulkers were completed by the end of August 1940. WAAC purchased the three parts of Burners, but not Caulkers, for £300 and requested a further painting, Welders, for balance. Spencer delivered Welders in March 1941 and in May 1941 saw the two paintings hanging together for the first time at the WAAC exhibition in the National Gallery. WAAC held Spencer in the highest regard, and in particular Dickey ensured he received, almost, all the expenses and materials he requested and even accepted his refusal to fill-in any forms or sign a contract.
Between trips to Port Glasgow, Spencer was renting a room in Epsom, to be near Carline and his children, but the landlady there disliked him and he wanted to move back to Cookham and work on the paintings in his old studio but he could not afford to rent it from Preece, so WAAC agreed further financial help for that purpose. In May 1942, Spencer delivered Template, followed by twelve portraits of Clydesiders in October 1942. By June 1943 Spencer was having problems with the composition of the next painting in the series, Bending the Keel plate and considered abandoning it. Although he was not entirely happy with the painting, WAAC purchased it in October 1943 for 150 guineas. About this time, the owner of the shipyard, James Lithgow, complained to WAAC about Spencer's portrayal of his shipyard. WAAC duly commissioned Henry Rushbury to go to Port Glasgow and produce some rather more conventional views of shipbuilding for Lithgow. Spencer made further visits to Glasgow and by June 1944 had completed Riggers and begun work on Plumbers. After WAAC had purchased these two paintings, they did not have enough funds to authorise the completion of the entire original scheme of paintings. By the time WAAC was wound up, money had been made available for one further picture, The Furnaces, which would become the central piece of the scheme. After the war, when the WAAC collection of artworks was dispersed to different museums, the complete Shipbuilding on the Clyde series was offered to the National Maritime Museum who refused to accept the pictures and they were given to the Imperial War Museum instead.
Among the dressing stations was an old Greek church which Spencer drew such that, with the animal and human onlookers surrounding it, it would recall depictions of the birth of Christ, but to Spencer the wounded figures on the stretchers spoke of Christ on the Cross while the lifesaving work of the surgeons represented the Resurrection. He wrote,
"I meant it not a scene of horror but a scene of redemption." And also, "One would have thought that the scene was a sordid one...but I felt there was grandeur...all those wounded men were calm and at peace with everything, so the pain seemed a small thing with them."
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
The Marriage At Cana: Bride And Bridegroom
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Scene from the Marriage at Cana in Galilee, c. 1935
Oil on canvas
H 84.2 x W 183.2 cm
Ulster Museum
Stanley Spencer (British, 1891–1959)
The baptism, c. 1952
Oil on Canvas
76 x 127 cm. (29.9 x 50 in.)
Private collection
Sir Stanley Spencer
St Francis and the Birds, c. 1935
Oil paint on canvas
713 × 612 mm
Tate
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Love among the Nations, c. 1935–1936
Oil on canvas
H 91.1 x W 280 cm
The Fitzwilliam Museum
The Dustman or The Lovers, c. 1934
Oil on canvas
Laing Art Gallery
Numerous other paintings were intended for the Church-House. These included the two paintings Spencer submitted for the 1935 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Saint Francis and the Birds (See above) and The Dustman or The Lovers. The Royal Academy rejected both pictures, and Spencer resigned from the Academy in protest. The rejection of the Saint Francis picture was particularly galling for Spencer as the model for the figure of Saint Francis had been his own father, wearing his own dressing gown and slippers, which Spencer had intended to hang in the nave of the Church-House.
Stanley Spencer
Patricia at Cockmarsh Hill, c. 1935
Oil on canvas
30 by 20in.
Private collection
Patricia Preece (22 January 1894 – 19 May 1966), born Ruby Vivian Preece, was an English artist, associated with the Bloomsbury Group, and the second wife of painter Stanley Spencer, for whom she modelled. It was later discovered that nearly all of the artwork exhibited and sold by Preece was painted by her lifelong lover, Dorothy Hepworth. More on Patricia Preece
Spencer made a return visit to Switzerland in 1935, and Patricia Preece (See above) travelled with him. When they returned to Cookham, Spencer's wife, Carline, moved to Hampstead, and his contact with his daughters became limited. Carline was growing increasingly despondent and hurt at Spencer's fixation with Preece. Between the middle of 1935 and 1936 Spencer painted a series of nine pictures, known as the Domestic Scenes in which he recalled, or re-imagined, life with Carline at home. While Spencer was painting these, Carline, as shown by her letters from the time, finally started divorce proceedings and a decree absolute was issued in May 1937.
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Domestic Scenes: At the Chest of Drawers, c. 1936
Oil on canvas
H 51 x W 66 cm
Stanley Spencer Gallery
This belongs to the ‘Marriage at Cana’ series for the ‘Church House’. Two guests, Stanley and Hilda, choose clothes to wear to the wedding feast. Ironically, Spencer decided to celebrate the joys of marriage at the time his own actions were leading to his divorce. He presented himself as a tiny man dominated by an exaggeratedly large woman, a favourite theme at the time. More on this painting
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Family Group: Hilda, Unity and Dolls, c.1937
Oil on canvas
H 76.2 x W 50.8 cm
Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Museums and Galleries
In a futile attempt to be reconciled with Carline, Spencer went to stay with her in Hampstead for ten days. Her rejection of this approach is the basis of Hilda, Unity and Dolls (See above), which Spencer painted during that visit. During the winter of 1937, alone in Southwold, Suffolk, Spencer begin a series of paintings, The Beatitudes of Love, about ill-matched couples. These pictures, and others of often radical sexual imagery, were intended for cubicles in the Church-House where the visitor could "meditate on the sanctity and beauty of sex". When Sir Edward Marsh, Spencer's early patron, was shown these paintings his response was "Terrible, terrible Stanley!".
The Beatitudes of Love Series (1938)
• Beatitude 1: Nearness (lost)
• Beatitude 2: Knowing (private collection)
• Beatitude 3: Seeing (destroyed by fire)
• Beatitude 4: Passion or Desire (private collection)
• Beatitude 5: Contemplation (Stanley Spencer Gallery)
• Beatitude 6: Consciousness (private collection)
• Beatitude 7: Romantic Meeting (National Art Gallery, Wellington)
• Beatitude 8: Worship (private collection)
• Beatitude 9: Age (possibly destroyed)
• Beatitudes of
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Beatitudes of Love 7: Romantic Meeting
Oil on canvas
National Art, Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Beatitudes of Love 4: Passion (Desire), c. 1938Oil on canvas
I have no further description, at this time
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
The Beatitudes of Love (5): Contemplation, c. 1938
Oil on canvas
H 91.5 x W 61 cm
Stanley Spencer Gallery
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Beatitudes of Love 6: Consciousness
Oil on canvasI have no further description, at this time
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Beatitudes of Love 8: Worship
Oil on canvas
I have no further description, at this time
Beatitude 8: Worship (1938) follows this dynamic, the male figures that resemble Spencer seem to be dwarfed and overwhelmed by the female figures. In the foreground, the two men are in kneeling positions as the large female bodies tower over them. Similarly, the two further figures seem to be absorbed by the group of women in front of them. The dominant figure in white is usually interpreted as Preece. She is surrounded by numerous gifts: cased jewelry, perfume, coins, and wads of money. The theme of gifts had personal significance to Spencer. He lavished Preece with expensive presents, accumulating substantial amounts of debt that almost led him to financial ruin. In particular, the jewelry placed directly underneath Preece’s dress highlights the transactional nature of the relationship: the man bows down powerless, buying gifts in return for the woman’s favor. More on this painting
In October 1938 Spencer had to leave Cookham and moved to London, spending six weeks with John Rothenstein before moving to a bedsit in Swiss Cottage. There was now no realistic hope of reconciliation with Carline and he was already distanced from Preece, who had rented out Lindworth so effectively evicting Spencer. At this low point Spencer painted four of the canvases in the Christ in the Wilderness series. He originally intended to paint a series of 40, one representing each day of Jesus's sojourn in the wilderness, but in the end only eight were completed and a ninth was left unfinished. By September 1939, he was staying at Leonard Stanley in Gloucestershire with the artists George and Daphne Charlton. Spencer created many important works in his room above the bar of the White Hart Inn which he used as a studio, including Us in Gloucestershire and The Wool Shop. While in Gloucestershire, Spencer also began a series of over 100 pencil works, now known as the Scrapbook Drawings, which he continued to add to for at least ten years.
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Since late in 1938, Spencer's agent, Dudley Tooth had been managing Spencer's finances and when the Second World War broke out he wrote to E.M.O'R. Dickey, the secretary of the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, seeking employment for Spencer. In May 1940 WAAC sent Spencer to the Lithgows Shipyard in Port Glasgow on the River Clyde to depict the civilians at work there. Spencer became fascinated by what he saw and sent WAAC proposals for a scheme involving up to sixty-four canvases displayed on all four sides of a room. WAAC agreed to a more modest series of up to eleven canvases, some of which would be up to six metres long. The first two of these, Burners and Caulkers were completed by the end of August 1940. WAAC purchased the three parts of Burners, but not Caulkers, for £300 and requested a further painting, Welders, for balance. Spencer delivered Welders in March 1941 and in May 1941 saw the two paintings hanging together for the first time at the WAAC exhibition in the National Gallery. WAAC held Spencer in the highest regard, and in particular Dickey ensured he received, almost, all the expenses and materials he requested and even accepted his refusal to fill-in any forms or sign a contract.
This work was intended as a complementary piece to 'Burners' and was painted between November 1940 and February 1941. Welding was a relatively new invention in the Second World War, and had superceded riveting as it was quicker and more effective. The welder would bond the plates together in prefabricated sections before they went down to the building berth. In the left panel, second from left, Spencer has drawn a self-portrait. This shows that he saw himself, not as a detached observer, but integral to the war effort.
Left panel. From left to right; man lying on his side using an arc welder on a round object and holding his mask in front of his face; self portrait of Stanley Spencer watching a welder through the mask he holds away from himself; three more welders at work Centre panel showing men carrying heavy angled metal plates; arc welders at work in the individual box sections of a ship's double bottom; possibly a self portrait of Spencer as the welder in the centre front Right panel. Arc welders at work in various positions; two young boys toast a piece of bread over a brazier. More on this painting
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Shipbuilding on the Clyde: Welders (centre), c. 1941
Oil on canvas
H 106.7 x W 555.8 cm
IWM (Imperial War Museums)
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Shipbuilding on the Clyde: Burners (centre), c. 1940
Oil on canvas
H 106.7 x W 555.8 cm
IWM (Imperial War Museums)
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)
Shipbuilding on the Clyde: Plumbers (centre), c. 1944–1945
Oil on canvas
H 81.2 x W 492.7 cm
IWM (Imperial War Museums)
Representation of plumbers at work providing the pipe work for all the drainage, water supply and sanitation on board ship. From left to right; man painting pipes with anti-corrosion paint; man measuring ready made pipes; three men carrying pipes; two men using blowtorches on a bench; men working with angled pipes; man hauling a large pipe with a winch; a small furnace blazing in foreground; a man bending a pipe; a group of men hauling pipes into an upright position ready for them to be filled with sand, a pipe being cooled down with a hose after bending; more pipes being hauled and bent; men carrying the finished pipes to a horse and cart. More on this painting
Between trips to Port Glasgow, Spencer was renting a room in Epsom, to be near Carline and his children, but the landlady there disliked him and he wanted to move back to Cookham and work on the paintings in his old studio but he could not afford to rent it from Preece, so WAAC agreed further financial help for that purpose. In May 1942, Spencer delivered Template, followed by twelve portraits of Clydesiders in October 1942. By June 1943 Spencer was having problems with the composition of the next painting in the series, Bending the Keel plate and considered abandoning it. Although he was not entirely happy with the painting, WAAC purchased it in October 1943 for 150 guineas. About this time, the owner of the shipyard, James Lithgow, complained to WAAC about Spencer's portrayal of his shipyard. WAAC duly commissioned Henry Rushbury to go to Port Glasgow and produce some rather more conventional views of shipbuilding for Lithgow. Spencer made further visits to Glasgow and by June 1944 had completed Riggers and begun work on Plumbers. After WAAC had purchased these two paintings, they did not have enough funds to authorise the completion of the entire original scheme of paintings. By the time WAAC was wound up, money had been made available for one further picture, The Furnaces, which would become the central piece of the scheme. After the war, when the WAAC collection of artworks was dispersed to different museums, the complete Shipbuilding on the Clyde series was offered to the National Maritime Museum who refused to accept the pictures and they were given to the Imperial War Museum instead.
Among the dressing stations was an old Greek church which Spencer drew such that, with the animal and human onlookers surrounding it, it would recall depictions of the birth of Christ, but to Spencer the wounded figures on the stretchers spoke of Christ on the Cross while the lifesaving work of the surgeons represented the Resurrection. He wrote,
"I meant it not a scene of horror but a scene of redemption." And also, "One would have thought that the scene was a sordid one...but I felt there was grandeur...all those wounded men were calm and at peace with everything, so the pain seemed a small thing with them."
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