Gilbert Spencer RA 'Melbury Downs', (c1934) oil on canvas
Gilbert Spencer RA (1892-1979) ‘Melbury Downs,’ (c1934) oil on canvas housed within its original frame by Alfred Stiles. Dimensions: 50.5 cm x 40.5 cm, with frame: 62 cm x 52 cm. Possibly exhibited at the Goupil Gallery winter salon 1934 and the NEAC winter salon 1935 (number 225)
Gilbert and Ursula Spencer lived at Burdens Farm House, near Compton Abbas, Dorset between 1931 and 1936. The artist commented, 'We loved the place on sight, and took it from the farmer, Ivor Day for 10 shillings a week, plus rates' (see G. Spencer, Gilbert Spencer, R.A. Memoirs of a painter, London, 1974, p. 116).
My essay on Gilbert Spencer can be read here:
https://www.richardmorris.org/blog-1-1/gilbert-spencer
Gilbert Spencer
Gilbert Spencer was born at Cookham in Berkshire, the youngest of eleven children of William Spencer, an organist and music teacher, and Anna Caroline Slack. Spencer attended the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal College of Art, before enrolling at the Slade School. Like many artists of this period, Spencer was taught, and was highly influenced by Henry Tonks, the surgeon turned artist, who depicted facially disfigured soldiers of the First World War waiting to undergo reconstructive surgery. Thirteen months younger than his brother and fellow painter, Sir Stanley Spencer, Gilbert was a talented artist in his own right. The art historian John Rothenstein in ‘Stanley Spencer: The Man, Correspondence and Reminiscences,’ (page 135} has the artist Peter Mobsby recalling Stanley saying: ‘Oh, Gil is a much painter than I’ll ever be.’ I have heard him say more than once..’
Gilbert attended the Slade School of Fine Art between 1913-1915 and in met Sydney Carline, the Ruskin master of drawing at Oxford, who later invited Spencer to join his staff. At the Slade, Spencer won the life-drawing prize in 1914 and came second in the summer competition with his mural titled The Seven Ages of Man [Hamilton Art Gallery, Canada]. For the duration of the First World War he was part of the Royal Army Medical Corps and was sent to Salonika and Egypt. He returned to the Slade when demobbed in 1919. In 1922 Spencer started teaching at The Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.
Like his older brother Stanley, Gilbert served as an official war artist from 1940 to 1943. Between 1948 and 1950, he was the head of department of painting and drawing at the Glasgow School of Art and in 1950 was elected an associate of the Royal Academy. The year that he was made a Royal Academician, in 1959, both his wife and his brother Stanley died. Retrospective exhibitions of Gilbert’s work took place in 1964 at Reading and 1974 at the Fine Art Society in London. In 1970, at the age of seventy-eight, Gilbert moved to a farm cottage in Walsham-le-Willows in Suffolk where he spent the remainder of his life. He died in 1979. Spencer’s work is in several public collections including the Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, Imperial War Museum, Manchester City Galleries, Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield and Belfast City Art Gallery.
A biography on Gilbert Spencer written by Paul Gough with contributions by Sacha Llewellyn and Amanda Bradley Petitgas was published by Yale University Press in 2024.
Gilbert Spencer RA (1892-1979) ‘Melbury Downs,’ (c1934) oil on canvas housed within its original frame by Alfred Stiles. Dimensions: 50.5 cm x 40.5 cm, with frame: 62 cm x 52 cm. Possibly exhibited at the Goupil Gallery winter salon 1934 and the NEAC winter salon 1935 (number 225)
Gilbert and Ursula Spencer lived at Burdens Farm House, near Compton Abbas, Dorset between 1931 and 1936. The artist commented, 'We loved the place on sight, and took it from the farmer, Ivor Day for 10 shillings a week, plus rates' (see G. Spencer, Gilbert Spencer, R.A. Memoirs of a painter, London, 1974, p. 116).
My essay on Gilbert Spencer can be read here:
https://www.richardmorris.org/blog-1-1/gilbert-spencer
Gilbert Spencer
Gilbert Spencer was born at Cookham in Berkshire, the youngest of eleven children of William Spencer, an organist and music teacher, and Anna Caroline Slack. Spencer attended the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal College of Art, before enrolling at the Slade School. Like many artists of this period, Spencer was taught, and was highly influenced by Henry Tonks, the surgeon turned artist, who depicted facially disfigured soldiers of the First World War waiting to undergo reconstructive surgery. Thirteen months younger than his brother and fellow painter, Sir Stanley Spencer, Gilbert was a talented artist in his own right. The art historian John Rothenstein in ‘Stanley Spencer: The Man, Correspondence and Reminiscences,’ (page 135} has the artist Peter Mobsby recalling Stanley saying: ‘Oh, Gil is a much painter than I’ll ever be.’ I have heard him say more than once..’
Gilbert attended the Slade School of Fine Art between 1913-1915 and in met Sydney Carline, the Ruskin master of drawing at Oxford, who later invited Spencer to join his staff. At the Slade, Spencer won the life-drawing prize in 1914 and came second in the summer competition with his mural titled The Seven Ages of Man [Hamilton Art Gallery, Canada]. For the duration of the First World War he was part of the Royal Army Medical Corps and was sent to Salonika and Egypt. He returned to the Slade when demobbed in 1919. In 1922 Spencer started teaching at The Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.
Like his older brother Stanley, Gilbert served as an official war artist from 1940 to 1943. Between 1948 and 1950, he was the head of department of painting and drawing at the Glasgow School of Art and in 1950 was elected an associate of the Royal Academy. The year that he was made a Royal Academician, in 1959, both his wife and his brother Stanley died. Retrospective exhibitions of Gilbert’s work took place in 1964 at Reading and 1974 at the Fine Art Society in London. In 1970, at the age of seventy-eight, Gilbert moved to a farm cottage in Walsham-le-Willows in Suffolk where he spent the remainder of his life. He died in 1979. Spencer’s work is in several public collections including the Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, Imperial War Museum, Manchester City Galleries, Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield and Belfast City Art Gallery.
A biography on Gilbert Spencer written by Paul Gough with contributions by Sacha Llewellyn and Amanda Bradley Petitgas was published by Yale University Press in 2024.
Gilbert Spencer RA (1892-1979) ‘Melbury Downs,’ (c1934) oil on canvas housed within its original frame by Alfred Stiles. Dimensions: 50.5 cm x 40.5 cm, with frame: 62 cm x 52 cm. Possibly exhibited at the Goupil Gallery winter salon 1934 and the NEAC winter salon 1935 (number 225)
Gilbert and Ursula Spencer lived at Burdens Farm House, near Compton Abbas, Dorset between 1931 and 1936. The artist commented, 'We loved the place on sight, and took it from the farmer, Ivor Day for 10 shillings a week, plus rates' (see G. Spencer, Gilbert Spencer, R.A. Memoirs of a painter, London, 1974, p. 116).
My essay on Gilbert Spencer can be read here:
https://www.richardmorris.org/blog-1-1/gilbert-spencer
Gilbert Spencer
Gilbert Spencer was born at Cookham in Berkshire, the youngest of eleven children of William Spencer, an organist and music teacher, and Anna Caroline Slack. Spencer attended the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal College of Art, before enrolling at the Slade School. Like many artists of this period, Spencer was taught, and was highly influenced by Henry Tonks, the surgeon turned artist, who depicted facially disfigured soldiers of the First World War waiting to undergo reconstructive surgery. Thirteen months younger than his brother and fellow painter, Sir Stanley Spencer, Gilbert was a talented artist in his own right. The art historian John Rothenstein in ‘Stanley Spencer: The Man, Correspondence and Reminiscences,’ (page 135} has the artist Peter Mobsby recalling Stanley saying: ‘Oh, Gil is a much painter than I’ll ever be.’ I have heard him say more than once..’
Gilbert attended the Slade School of Fine Art between 1913-1915 and in met Sydney Carline, the Ruskin master of drawing at Oxford, who later invited Spencer to join his staff. At the Slade, Spencer won the life-drawing prize in 1914 and came second in the summer competition with his mural titled The Seven Ages of Man [Hamilton Art Gallery, Canada]. For the duration of the First World War he was part of the Royal Army Medical Corps and was sent to Salonika and Egypt. He returned to the Slade when demobbed in 1919. In 1922 Spencer started teaching at The Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.
Like his older brother Stanley, Gilbert served as an official war artist from 1940 to 1943. Between 1948 and 1950, he was the head of department of painting and drawing at the Glasgow School of Art and in 1950 was elected an associate of the Royal Academy. The year that he was made a Royal Academician, in 1959, both his wife and his brother Stanley died. Retrospective exhibitions of Gilbert’s work took place in 1964 at Reading and 1974 at the Fine Art Society in London. In 1970, at the age of seventy-eight, Gilbert moved to a farm cottage in Walsham-le-Willows in Suffolk where he spent the remainder of his life. He died in 1979. Spencer’s work is in several public collections including the Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, Imperial War Museum, Manchester City Galleries, Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield and Belfast City Art Gallery.
A biography on Gilbert Spencer written by Paul Gough with contributions by Sacha Llewellyn and Amanda Bradley Petitgas was published by Yale University Press in 2024.