Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Shopping in 1900s England by Stanley Spencer 1891-1959



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Choosing a Dress


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Crossing the Road


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) The Sausage Shop


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) The Wool Shop 1939

Sunday, April 20, 2014

The countryside comes alive with Stanley Spencer 1891-1959


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Cottages at Burghclere

Stanley Spencer allows reality to dominate in his silent landscapes & intimate portraits.  My landscapes, he once wrote, are places waiting for their figures.  "My landscapes compared with my other work are carried out with a hard relentless persistence and dogged determination to go through with it, which gives them a competent and finished but lifeless and hard look," he complained. Once Spencer injects figures into his landscapes, they become stories & reality gets distorted.  "Distortion arrives from the effort to see something in a way that will enable [the painter] to love it."  Stanley Spencer, out of Sermons by Artists (1934)

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Cookham Farm Gate 1950



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) Old Tannery Mills, Gloucestershire 1939



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Chestnuts



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Rock Gardens, Cookham Dene



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Cows



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) Buttercups in a Meadow



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Apple Gatherers 1912-13



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Landscape in North Wales



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Gardening



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) Cockmarsh Hill Cookham 1935



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Saint Francis and the Birds



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) Scarecrow, Cookham 1934



 Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) Sunflower and Dog Worship 1937



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Cookham


Friday, April 18, 2014

Portraits of Women by British Artist Stanley Spencer 1891-1959



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Daphne Charlton


Although Stanley Spencer's portraits are brutally realistic & stripped of allegorical references, he wrote, "Every thing or person other than myself is a future potential part of myself, or a revealer of and an agent in revealing unknown parts of myself: unknown husbands, wives, lovers, worshippers, never before seen and only known by a persistent desire or passionate longing, supported by a kind of consciousness of their existence."  Stanley Spencer, out of Sermons by Artists (1934)


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Daphne by the Window in Northern Ireland


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Hilda, Unity, and Dolls  The artist's wife.


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Miss Elizabeth Wimperis


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Lady Slesser


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Mrs Frank


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Country Girl Elise


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Daphne Spencer


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Hilda Carline


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Daphne Charlton


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Hilda Carline


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Miss Ashwanden


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Patricia Preece, 1933


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Mrs C P Grant


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Mrs Marjorie Metz


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Rachel Westropp


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Mrs Linda Few Brown


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) The Sisters


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Portrait in a Garden


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) The Psychiatrist


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Anny Lewinter Frankl


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Portrait of a Young Woman


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) Mr and Mrs Baggett 1956


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959)  Patricia at Cockmarsh Hill 1935

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Beatitudes of Love from the 1930s from Stanley Spencer 1891-1959



Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Contemplation 1938


In his Beatitudes series, Spencer brings together countless aspects of life, including love, sexuality, religion, reality, and fantasy.  Of these paintings, Spencer wrote, "I love them from within outwards and whatever that outward appearance may be it is an exquisite reminder of what is loved within, no matter what that exterior appearance may be."  Spencer explained in the 1930s, "There are two joys, the joys of innocence and religiousness and the joys of change and sexual experience and while these two selves seem unrelated and irreconcilable, still I am convinced of their ultimate union."


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Consciousness


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Passion or Desire


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Romantic Meeting


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Worship


Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) Knowing


Monday, April 14, 2014

Our Swans & Stanley Spencer 1891-1959



Stanley Spencer (English artist, 1891-1959) Swan Upping at Cookham c 1915-19


Nearly daily for the past 10 years, we have driven by a farm pond which was home to a pair of beautiful white swans & their offspring.  Last summer, the swans disappeared, and the farm house, barn, & all outbuildings were razed.  Now no swans, no offspring this year as we drive by.  Heartbreaking.  Here are a few of Spencer's more spiritual swans...


Stanley Spencer (English artist, 1891-1959) Separating Fighting Swans c 1933