Stanley Spencer
1891-1959
Spencer studied at the Slade School, 1908-12, obtaining the Melville Nettleship Prize and the Composition Prize in 1912. In the same year he exhibited at the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition organized by Roger Fry. During the First World War he served as an orderly in the Royal Berkshire infantry in Macedonia. He was a member of the New English Art Club, 1919-27, and had his first one-man show at the Goupil Gallery in 1927. During th 1920s he did a series of pictures best described as visionary transfigurations of his war experiences, culminating in the very large Resurrection, Cookham (Tate Gallery), which was painted in Henry Lamb's studio. It was described by John Rothenstein as 'one of the great pictures of this century'. From 1927 to 1932 he painted the series of religious murals for the Oratory of All Souls in the Berkshire village of Burghclere for which he became most widely known. He was made an A.R.A. in 1932 and R.A. in 1950, when he was also created C.B.E. In 1932 and 1938 he was represented at the Venice Biennale and in 1933 he was awarded an Honourable Mention at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh. During the Second World War he was commissioned to paint pictures of the shipyards in Glasgow. A retrospective exhibition was held at Temple Newsam, Leeds, in 1947 and a retrospective exhibition of drawings arranged by the Arts Council went on tour 1954-5, being exhibited in the Arts Council galleries, London, in 1955 at the same time as a retrospective exhibition of his paintings in the Tate Gallery. Stanley Spencer was one of the great originals of twentieth century British painting. For him the Christian religion was a living and present reality and his visionary attitude has been compared to that of William Blake.
Works Available
Study for Resurrection, Cookham