Stanley Spencer

Painting, Visual Artist

1891 – 1959

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Who was Stanley Spencer?

Sir Stanley Spencer KCB CBE RA 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 Thames-side village 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 World War One memorial whilst the latter was a commission for the War Artists' Advisory Committee during World War Two. 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. Cookham houses the Stanley Spencer Gallery.

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Born
Jun 30, 1891
Cookham
Siblings
Spouses
Nationality
  • United Kingdom
Profession
Education
  • University College London
  • Slade School of Fine Art
Lived in
  • Cookham
  • Vale of Health
Died
Dec 14, 1959
Cliveden
Resting place
Cookham

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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