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  • Sir Stanley Spencer

Sir Stanley Spencer

1891–1959

Self-Portrait 1913
© Estate of Stanley Spencer. All Rights Reserved 2023 / Bridgeman Images
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In Tate Britain

Historic and Modern British Art

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Rooms

3 artworks by Sir Stanley Spencer
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Biography

Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if in Cookham, the small village beside the River Thames where he was born and spent much of his life. Spencer referred to Cookham as "a village in Heaven" and in his biblical scenes, fellow-villagers are shown as their Gospel counterparts. Spencer was skilled at organising multi-figure compositions such as in his large paintings for the Sandham Memorial Chapel and the Shipbuilding on the Clyde series, the former being a First World War memorial while the latter was a commission for the War Artists' Advisory Committee during the Second World War.

As his career progressed Spencer often produced landscapes for commercial necessity and the intensity of his early visionary years diminished somewhat while elements of eccentricity came more to the fore. Although his compositions became more claustrophobic and his use of colour less vivid he maintained an attention to detail in his paintings akin to that of the Pre-Raphaelites. Spencer's works often express his fervent if unconventional Christian faith. This is especially evident in the scenes that he based in Cookham which show the compassion that he felt for his fellow residents and also his romantic and sexual obsessions. Spencer's works originally provoked great shock and controversy. Nowadays, they still seem stylistic and experimental, while the nude works depicting his futile relationship with his second wife, Patricia Preece, such as the Leg of mutton nude, foreshadow some of the much later works of Lucian Freud. Spencer's early work is regarded as a synthesis of French Post-Impressionism, exemplified for instance by Paul Gauguin, plus early Italian painting typified by Giotto. In later life Spencer remained an independent artist and did not join any of the artistic movements of the period, although he did show three works at the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition in 1912.

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British War Art

Artworks

Left Right
  • Sir Stanley Spencer Christ Carrying the Cross

    1920
  • Sir Stanley Spencer The Resurrection, Cookham

    1924–7
  • Sir Stanley Spencer Camouflaged Grenadier. Verso: Two Composition Studies for Burghclere Chapel

    1922–3
  • Sir Stanley Spencer Terry’s Lane, Cookham

    c.1932
  • Sir Stanley Spencer Turkeys

    1925
  • Sir Stanley Spencer The Robing of Christ

    1922
  • Sir Stanley Spencer The Disrobing of Christ

    1922
  • Sir Stanley Spencer Rickett’s Farm, Cookham Dene

    1938
See all 63

Artist as subject

Left Right
  • Sir Stanley Spencer The Resurrection, Cookham

    1924–7
  • Sir Stanley Spencer Self-Portrait

    1914
  • Sorry, copyright restrictions prevent us from showing this object here

    Sir Stanley Spencer Double Nude Portrait: The Artist and his Second Wife

    1937
  • Sir Stanley Spencer Self-Portrait

    1959
  • Sir Stanley Spencer Study for Double Nude Portrait: the Artist and his Second Wife

    c.1937
  • Sir Stanley Spencer Study for Double Nude Portrait: the Artist and his Second Wife

    c.1937
  • Sir Stanley Spencer Self-Portrait

    1913
  • Sir Stanley Spencer The Woolshop

    1939
    On display at Tate Britain part of Historic and Modern British Art

Film and audio

  • TateShots

    Stanley Spencer: Village Life Visionary

Sketches, letters, etc.

  • Sir Stanley Spencer Sketchbook by Stanley Spencer

    [c.1919–27]
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