Private Collection

Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)

Shoeing ‘Orses

SKU: 9227
Signed and inscribed : “Can’t you stand up?”, “No! N’more could you, if you’d been shoeing ‘orses since you was fourteen”
Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour on paper
21 1/2 x 29 1/2 in. (55 x 75 cm.)
Exhibited : Bristol exhibition 1950 

Size:
Height – 55cm
Width – 75cm

DESCRIPTION

Provenance:
The Artist’s Family
Presentation:
framed

Exhibited : Bristol exhibition

1950

From 1941 Spencer worked with the Royal College of Art at Ambleside in the Lake District. Too old to serve in the army Spencer was active in the Home Guard as a subsection leader. His witty observations of life in the Home Guard were captured in a series of fourteen large watercolours, which were intended for publication. The publication however had to be abandoned after the watercolours were intercepted by the Royal Mail, on their way to the printers, and ripped along one side (subsequently repaired by Spencer) as an act of censorship.

Distinguished as having been an Official War Artist in both WW1 and WW2 Spencer was commissioned by the Artists Advisory Committee on four occasions as an Official War Artist in 1940, 1942, 1943, 1944.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1050000847

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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

SKU: 11367
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
The Farmer with his herd
£3,500
SKU: 11735
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Study for Bedroom Scene, c. 1930
£8,750
SKU: 11734
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
SKU: 10984
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
The Balcony, 6 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, 1928, c.1941
£49,500
SKU: 10574
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
SKU: 10577
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Troops in the Lake District
£1,250
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Candlewick Curtains
SKU: 10405
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
God Creating the World
£2,850
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Ploughed Land, Garsington, c.1922
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Cookham Barns, 1925
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
SKU: 9251
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Portrait of a Soldier, circa 1940
£4,750
SKU: 9252
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
The Artist’s Daughter, Gillian
£3,500
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Gehazi and Naaman, c. 1930
SKU: 9244
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)
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!
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Trench Digging
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Escaped Prisoner
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
Sold
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
SKU: 5559
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Study for Hebridean Memory, 1951
£9,750
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
On Bakewell Bridge, 1950s