Hello, my name is Paul Priestley. Welcome to Art History School, the home of art history
for everyone. Today we are going to look at the English artist, Stanley Spencer, whose
work is a rich mix of spirituality, religion and eccentricity played out against the backdrop
of one small village in England. Stanley Spencer was born on 30 June 1891 in
a semi-detached house in the High Street, of Cookham-on-Thames, Berkshire, England.
His grandfather had built the property and several others in Cookham, and his cousins
lived next door. The family had lived in the village for generations and Spencer lived
there for most of his life. Cookham was his world, his being, the source of inspiration
for much of the work that he produced. Stanley Spencer was a small man around 5’
2” tall, with a wiry build, but he was not to be trifled with. He had bags of energy,
an ebullient personality, and was very appreciative. He stood out in a crowd, and was very engaging,
but he could be exhausting. He was the tenth child of a family of eleven,
two of his siblings died in infancy. His mother Anna looked after the children whilst his
father William, an organist, taught music to the many pupils who came to the house.
They were a cultured, but not a wealthy family. Spencer’s education was rudimentary. He
was home educated by his sisters, Florence and Annie, because his parents had reservations
about the local school and could not afford to send him to private school. Nevertheless,
growing up in a family consumed by literature, music, and religion provided a rich environment
for his imagination to flourish. This, together with his Methodist upbringing and his spirituality
would have a major impact on his painting. He was a solitary teenager often taking long
walks filling innumerable sketch books with drawings. A local artist did give him drawing
and painting lessons, but his father wanted to develop his skills further, so he approached
the local landowner, Lady Boston of Hedsor for advice. In 1907 she arranged for Spencer
to go to the Maidenhead Technical Institute. Interestingly, his father agreed, provided
Spencer took no examinations. In 1908 he was accepted at the prestigious
Slade School of Fine Art in London and studied there for 4 years. Amongst his contemporaries
was Paul Nash, Marc Gertler and David Bomberg. He was nicknamed, ‘Cookham’ because he
never stopped talking about the village, and for his habit of travelling home from London
every day after classes. It was not long before his work was being
appreciated; he won several prizes at the Slade and in 1912 exhibited his painting,
‘John Donne arriving in Heaven’ plus several drawings in Roger Fry’s Second Post-Impressionist
Exhibition in London. Later in 1912 he returned to Cookham to paint at his parent’s house
and began working on the ‘Apple Gatherers’, which was shown at the Contemporary Art Society
the following year. At the start of the first World War in 1914,
he wanted to enlist but his mother persuaded him to apply for ambulance duties. So, in
1915 he joined the Royal Medical Corps. and worked at the Beaufort War Hospital in Bristol,
an asylum commandeered by the army to treat wounded soldiers. He found the experience
tough. But his outlook was transformed by a chance meeting with Desmond Chute who gave
him a copy of St Augustine’s Confessions. It taught Spencer to find God and take solace
in everyday tasks and routines. This philosophy would go on to inform much of Spencer’s
work. In August 1916 he was posted to Salonika then in Macedonia, as part of the 68th Field
Ambulancemen. It was here he witnessed the horrific impact of bombardment and machine
gun fire. In 1917 Spencer volunteered for the 7th Battalion, The Royal Berkshires infantry
regiment. He spent almost 2 years at the front line before being invalided out with persistent
bouts of malaria, shortly after his brother Sydney was killed in 1918. The war had an
incalculable impact on his life. He wrote his sister Florence, ‘When I come home,
I’m going to learn Fresco painting – we are going to build a church.’
After the war he returned to Cookham where he continued work on “Swan Upping” which
he’d started in early 1915, but he found it incredibly difficult to finish.
In 1919 Spencer was asked by the British War Memorials Committee to paint a large painting
for a planned Hall of Remembrance, which, was never built. Spencer’s response was
his famous war painting, ‘Travoys arriving with Wounded at a Dressing Station at Smol.’
The painting was begun in 1919 and marks the beginning of a theme that would endure throughout
his career, that of finding the spiritual in the everyday. The composition is dynamic
in the way the medics and the wounded move upwardstowards the light of the operating
theatre. The theatre glows with the light of potential survival against the horror of
the dark night, a clear spiritual reference. This is emphasised in the lower right corner
where a man walks away, looking back at the hospital. His arm is bright white, a positive
light against the darkness beyond. In 1923 Spencer stayed for a short period
with the artist Henry Lamb in Dorset where he worked on ideas for his church and war
paintings. During this time Lamb invited Louis and Mary Behrend to his house where they saw
Spencer’s acres of Salonika and the Bristol War Hospital sketches. They were so impressed
they agreed to commission Spencer to build, ‘his castle in the sky’. On hearing the
news Spencer is said to have exclaimed, What ho, Giotto,’ in recognition of Giotto’s
Arena Chapel in Padua, Italy that had inspired his ideas. Although the chapel was supposed
to be a memorial to Mary’s brother, Lieutenant Henry Sandham, it was very much Spencer’s
project. The chapel was built in the village of Burghclere in Hampshire, Spencer had wanted
it to be in Cookham. In 1925 he married Hilda Carline who he had
met at the Slade in 1919. They had got engaged in 1922, but Spencer had repeatedly postponed
the wedding. Their first child, Shirin was born later that year.
In 1927 his painting “The Resurrection, Cookham” was exhibited at the Goupil Gallery,
in London to great critical acclaim and later presented to the Tate Gallery. The Spencer’s
then moved to Burghclere so he could concentrate on his paintings for the Sandham Memorial
Chapel. The Behrends were exceptionally generous patrons, not only paying for the chapel to
be built to Spencer's specifications, but they also built a house for him and his family
to live in while he worked at Burghclere. Spencer worked on the chapel for 5 years as
a way of processing the mental scars left by the horrors of war. The paintings show
conflict and injury, as well as the more everyday aspects of warfare; soldiers eating, sleeping
and having their injuries tended to. The smaller panels show scenes from the Beaufort War Hospital.
The centrepiece in the chapel is, ‘The Resurrection of the Soldiers, in which men and animals
lay stricken on the ground amidst the destruction. But if you look closely the soldiers are in
the process of being re-born, a resurrection. The soldiers meet, shake hands, and untangle
themselves from barbed wire and bandages. Here Spencer is offering love as redemption.
He is showing that anything is possible in art and that time can be rewound. This was
the perfect imaginary world Spencer longed for.
In 1930 his second daughter, Unity was born, and the family moved to Cookham in 1932 into
a substantial house called “Lindworth”. Spencer was elected an Associate Member of
the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1932 and also exhibited at the Venice Biennale.
Later that year he met Patricia Preece, an aspiring artist who lived in the village with
her close friend, another, more talented artist Dorothy Hepworth. Preece seemed very exotic
and totally captivated Spencer, modelling for several of his paintings. In return, he
took her on shopping trips buying her furs and jewellery.
In 1935 Spencer resigned from the Royal Academy after the hanging Committee rejected his paintings
“St. Francis and the Birds” and “The Dustman or the Lovers”. His relationship
with Preece was becoming more intense and eventually led to divorce.
Just four days after his divorce from Hilda in 1937 he married Patricia Preece. She was
gay, and although they were lovers, they never lived together after the marriage. In fact,
Patricia and Dorothy, who Spencer didn’t realise were lifelong lovers, left together
for the honeymoon in St Ives leaving Spencer in Cookham.
Within days he had seduced his former wife, Hilda and seemed genuinely surprised at her
anger when he told her he was going to join Patricia in St Ives. Preece reacted furiously
when she found out and consequently the marriage was never consummated. It appears he failed
to explain his domestic ambitions to either woman and consequently lost both.
Shortly after the marriage, Spencer signed over the deeds of the Cookham house to Patricia
Preece. She then forced him to leave, rented out the property and lived on the proceeds.
Within two years Spencer was penniless and living in a bedsit in Swiss Cottage in London.
Yet he was convinced he was destined to be with Patricia Preece. Perhaps the bitter irony
of Spencer’s foolishness is revealed in this painting.
Although the image suggests physical intimacy there doesn’t seem to be an emotional connection.
Her expression suggests boredom and disappointment as she gazes gloomily towards the bottom of
the canvas. He stares directly at her but doesn’t seem much happier than she is. Spencer
has depicted every crease, every fold of flesh and the myriad of skin tones, brilliantly,
creating a painting that is unnervingly candid. Despite everything, Spencer was very conscious
of his family responsibilities, but he completely lacked any ability to manage his own finances.
He needed to earn money, so his agent Dudley Tooth persuaded him to paint ‘anything that
would sell’, which was essentially, landscapes and portraits.
In 1940 not long after the start of the Second World War, he was commissioned by the War
Artist’s Advisory Committee to paint scenes at the Lithgow shipyard in Glasgow. Spencer
was fascinated by what he saw and proposed a scheme involving sixty-four canvases. The
Committee agreed to a series of eleven, some of which would be up to six metres long. The
first two paintings, ‘Burners’ and ‘Caulkers’ were completed by the end of August 1940.
The committee purchased the three parts of Burners, for £300. But not Caulkers, instead
requesting a further painting, Welders which he completed in March 1941. Later in 1943
he completed, ‘Bending the Keel Plate’, this enormous work brings ship building to
life. Despite being a very unpleasant and noisy environment, Spencer created harmony
through the repeated shapes, smooth surfaces and carefully choreographed figures. In his
own unique way, Spencer conferred an almost religious fervour onto the men as they work.
But these paintings also demonstrate Spencer's compositional skills and his love of combining
opposites -- dirt and glory, the earthly and the profound, the everyday and the spiritual.
The War Artist’s Advisory Committee obviously held Spencer in high regard, as they paid
for all his expenses and materials, and even accepted his refusal to fill-in any forms
or sign a contract. In 1945 Spencer moved to Cliveden View in
Cookham and began work on his Resurrection paintings. Spencer's original plan was to
paint a canvas some fifty feet wide, but soon realised this was impractical. So, he decided
to create a series of paintings instead, the largest of which were 6 metres wide. Resurrection:
The Hill of Sion, Resurrection: Port Glasgow, were supplemented by a series of triptychs,
Reunion, Rejoicing, Waking Up and The Raising of Jairus' Daughter plus a couple of smaller
pieces. More were planned but were never finished. Spencer wanted the entire series displayed
together, but each piece was sold to different collectors.
In 1947 The Sandham Memorial Chapel was given to the National Trust by the Behrends family.
And three years later, in 1950, the outgoing president of the Royal Academy, Sir Alfred
Munnings, initiated a police prosecution against Spencer for obscenity. Nothing came of it,
but the press reported the unnamed owner of the pictures had agreed to destroy them.
He re-joined the Royal Academy later in 1950, after Munnings left and was elected a Royal
Academician as well as being awarded the CBE. Later that year, Hilda his first wife died,
yet he continued to write to her until his own death. Later in 1955 a major retrospective
exhibition of his work was held at the Tate Gallery in London to much acclaim.
During the 1950’s Spencer could be seen wandering the lanes of Cookham, pushing an
old pram in which he carried his canvas and easel. If it was cold, he would wear his pyjamas
under his suit. His pram is now a major exhibit in the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham.
Spencer was Knighted by the Queen in 1958, but in December of that year he was diagnosed
with cancer. He underwent an operation at the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital on
the Cliveden estate in early 1959 and after the operation, stayed with friends in Dewsbury,
Yorkshire. There, between 12th and the 16th of July, he painted this final self-portrait,
still determined, and defiant. Later, in 1959 Spencer moved back into his
childhood home, Fernlea. But on the 14th December 1959, he died at Canadian War Memorial Hospital.
At the time of his death, his painting, Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta, remained unfinished.
Spencer was cremated and his ashes interred in Cookham churchyard together with those
of Hilda his first wife. Stanley Spencer was a very sociable character
whose often labelled as eccentric, in fact Patricia Preece in her diaries, even called
him ‘mad’. As a character, he was certainly different and unusual. Yet this small man
with twinkling eyes and shaggy grey hair was, undoubtedly, one of Britain’s greatest artists.
Thank you for watching, I hope you have really enjoyed learning about Stanley Spencer, a
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