Sir Stanley Spencer R.A. (British, 1891-1959)


Hilda, Stanley and Child pencil52.1 x 70.8 cm. (20 1/2 x 27 7/8 in.)
|ProvenanceWith Grafton Gallery, London, where acquired byOlwyn Bowey R.A.With Piccadilly Gallery, London, circa 1993-4Sale; Sotheby's, London, 10 December 2008, lot 39Private Collection, U.K.The present work is accompanied by letters from Olwyn Bowey and Unity Spencer (the Artist's daughter) discussing the picture.The present work can be classed as belonging to a group of what are known as Spencer's 'Scrapbook Drawings' which he worked on from the 1930s onwards however this somewhat derisive title belies the finished draughtsmanship and quality they possess as can be seen in Hilda, Stanley and Child. These works were nearly always not working ideas but complete compositions squared up ready for transfer into a finished painting, although no oil of the present work is known to exist. What appears to be a simple, playful or domestic scene was often filled with deep religious or metaphysical symbolism for the artist and in his biography Kenneth Pople describes it as "Each finished drawing recalls for Stanley a physical sensation or experience which surprised him by the intensity of its feeling....The effect for Stanley was a transfiguration of the physical event into a spiritual concept fierce in its emotional complexity and intensity" (Kenneth Pople, Stanley Spencer, A Biography, Collins, London, 1991, p.425). The 'Scrapbook Drawings' predominantly feature the important women in his life, Hilda, Patricia, Elsie and Daphne in different roles. The works with first wife Hilda tend towards representing their 'togetherness', she is "Juno, Genius of Motherhood, or Athena, goddess of truth and wisdom" (Op.Cit., p.428). The title of this lot would suggest that here we have a tender family scene with Spencer and Hilda reclining together with one of their children. But why is Hilda pointing to a nude drawing and who is the male child as they only had daughters? Unity Spencer has suggested in correspondence discussing this lot that the scene may actually represent the artist's own childhood and the baby is in fact himself. A remembered vision of time spent with his parents.