SKU: 11367
Gilbert Spencer
(1892 - 1979)
The Farmer with his herd
£2,850
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
£28,000
Size:
Height – 86cm
Width – 60cm
1 in stock
This is one of a set of ten oil paintings based on Spencer’s illustrations for The Ten Commandments, commissioned by Robert Gathorne-Hardy in 1927 and published by the Mill House Press in 1934. A proof copy of the corresponding lithograph is annotated ‘October 1938 in studio’, relating to the present oil painting. The original drawing is dated 1927. The paintings were exhibited at the Leicester Galleries in February 1939. This painting can be securely dated to 1938, from Spencer’s own annotation to the corresponding lithograph. He painted the whole of the Ten Commandments series in oils in 1938. Most are now lost, some are probably destroyed, and one (Noah summoning the animals) is in the Art Gallery of South Australia.
A servant of the prophet Elisha, Gehazi enjoyed a position of power but was ultimately corrupt, misusing his authority to cheat Naaman the Syrian, a general afflicted with leprosy. As punishment, Elisha cursed Gehazi, transferring Naaman’s leprosy to him and his descendants forever, whereupon Gehazi turned ‘as white as snow’ (2 Kings 5.27).
In Rabbinic literature, Gehazi is identified as one of four commoners who forfeited his share in the afterlife because of his wickedness. He is the subject of a poem by Rudyard Kipling.
Biblical subject matter featured heavily in Gilbert Spencer’s early works. This seemed a natural concomitant from his training at the Slade, and the Summer Composition Competition, which frequently offered a Biblical or Classical theme for the artists’ brief. Henry Tonks was the Professor of Art throughout both Gilbert and Stanley Spencer’s tenure. Tonks was particularly fond of setting Biblical topics for this Prize, as Religious art is one of the most established genres of Western narrative painting, and demanded considerable skill of the artist tasked with both upholding this visual tradition, while revolutionising the format for a modern audience.
Other religious paintings in Gilbert Spencer’s early career include The Crucifixion (now in the collection of the Tate Gallery), which relocates this seminal scene to Cookham Meadow, as well as The Shepherds Amazed, 1920, from the Gospel of Luke, which belongs to Leeds Art Gallery. Spencer also produced a series of drawings to illustrate The Ten Commandments in 1934 (Mill House Press), and one of the illustrations was based upon the composition of Gehazi and Naaman.
We are grateful to Paul Gough and Amy Lim for providing this information through their online catalogue.
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.
