Forthcoming

Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)

Making of the Golden Calf

SKU: 10406
Lithograhic proof, squared in ink with pencil notes to margin

Size:
Height – 35.7cm
Width – 28.3cm

DESCRIPTION

Provenance:
The Artist’s Estate; Private collection
Presentation:
folio

In 1934, Gilbert Spencer was offered a commission from Bob Gathorne-Hardy at the Mill House Press to illustrate The
Ten Commandments, a comprehensive and complicated subject that the artist savoured. ‘It was just the kind of
employment I was wanting’, he wrote, ‘giving me a subject, scope, and discipline. I had to submit it for approval but
there was not this time that tiresome question as to whether the drawing is like the sitter. Instead there could be

discussion of a more interesting and varied kind.’ Back home in Cookham, after completing his paintings for the
Oratory in Burghclere, Stanley quipped, ‘Gil has found the Commandments all broken in the Bible’. Indeed he had, and
then set to joining them back together. Unlike many of his contemporaries and teaching colleagues who readily enjoyed
acclaim as illustrators, Gilbert had relatively little experience. However, he thrived on the challenge, creating a folio of
11 large drawings (and two title page illustrations) brimming with visual incident and character, each drawn with a tight
linearity, economy of expression and little waste. Gilbert’s characteristically controlled cross-hatched shading lent itself
well to the lithographic process and the portfolio of large ‘tipped in’ prints on smooth woven cream paper were
considered by both artist and publisher a success.

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THE ARTIST

Gilbert Spencer
Gilbert
Spencer
1892 - 1979

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.

MORE PICTURES BY ARTIST

Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
The Farmer with his herd
£3,500
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Study for Bedroom Scene, c. 1930
£8,750
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Hebridean Farm, c. 1947
£6,950
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Home Guard Troops near Ambleside, c.1942-43
Private
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Girl in Yellow (Portrait of Theodosia Townshend)
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
The Flower Show
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
A Sudden Return Home, 1946
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
The Balcony, 6 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, 1928, c.1941
£49,500
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Study for The Miller
£2,900
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Preliminary Study for New Arrivals, Sinai, 1917
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Tennis – viewed from a gap in the trees, circa 1966
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Troops in the Lake District
£1,250
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Candlewick Curtains
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
God Creating the World
£2,850
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Cookham Barns, 1925
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Ploughed Land, Garsington, c.1922
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Trees at Garsington, c.1922
Reserved
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Portrait of Joyce Peters, 1920’s
Reserved
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Man at a Sluice Gate on the Thames, 1932
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Aberdovey, 1953
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Portrait of a Glaswegian lady
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Two calves, 1930
Private
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Late Self-Portrait
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Portrait of a Soldier, circa 1940
£4,750
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
The Artist’s Daughter, Gillian
£3,500
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Gehazi and Naaman, c. 1930
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Study for Composition with Three Children Seated in a Meadow, 1914
£8,500
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
The Goal, c. 1930
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Trench Digging
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Escaped Prisoner
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
The Enemy, circa 1942
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
I wish I wasn’t Home-Guarding Tonight
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Left…rapid…fire!
Private
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
The Parade Ground
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Home Guard Duties
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
The Bore: In ’15’
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
It’s orders
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Portrait of Doreen Harter, mid 1920’s
Private
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Darling, what have you done with my battledress?, 1941
Private
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Shoeing ‘Orses
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Protective Covering
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Apples in a Basket circa 1913
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Hebridean Memory, 1951
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Study for Hebridean Memory, 1951
£9,750
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
On Bakewell Bridge, 1950s