Private
Collection
Collection
Gilbert Spencer
(1892 - 1979)
Portrait of Mrs. Anne Carline, 1930
Private Collection
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Size:
Height – 114.5cm
Width – 82cm
ortrait of Mrs Anne Carline by Gilbert Spencer / painted in 1930 at 47 Downshire Hill, Hampstead (the sitter was writing her story for children ‘Quinshie Pan …’, in the drawing room. / …formally bought by Mrs Heap, given by her to Mr MacLean at … / then purchased by Richard Carline, 1961. / Reproduced in The Studio. Jan 1932. First shown at the artist one-/ man show at the Gimpel Gallery, London, Feb: 1932. / From Richard Carline 17 Pond St Hampstead’.
This highly sensitive portrait depicts Anne Carline (1862-1945), who was the mother of Hilda, Richard and Sydney Carline. Hilda Carline was the first wife of Gilbert’s brother, Stanley Spencer. In 1927, Anne Carline had followed her children into painting, inspired by the artistic community that surrounded the Spencers and Carline, creating delicate domestic scenes. This work stands as a poignant display of her dignity and is a beautiful tribute by Gilbert Spencer. Hilda Carline created a similar portrait of Anne in 1929, ‘Portrait of the Artist’s Mother’ and a portrait by Richard Carline of her is now in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Painter, especially of landscapes, draughtsman, teacher and writer, and brother of the painter Stanley Spencer. Born at Cookham, Berkshire. Spencer studied at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, woodcarving at the Royal College of Art, 1911-12, then with Fred Brown and Henry Tonks at the Slade School of Fine Art, 1913-20. Between 1915 and 1919 he served in the army. Spencer had his first one-man show at the Goupil Gallery in 1923; he also exhibited at the RA (he was elected RA in 1960), NEAC, (of which he was a member), Leicester Galleries, RSA, Redfern Gallery and many other venues. Although he produced notable wall paintings for Holywell Manor, Oxford, 1934-6, Spencer made his name as a landscape artist working mainly in the English southern counties. At various times he taught at the Royal College of Art, Glasgow School of Art and Camberwell, serving meanwhile as an Official War Artist, 1940-3. His book Stanley Spencer appeared in 1961 and his autobiography, Memoirs of a Painter, in 1974. A retrospective exhibition was held at Reading in 1964. The Tate and many other public collections hold his work. He sometimes just signed his work GS. He lived in Hampstead and towards the end of his life near Reading, Berkshire.
