SKU: 11367
Gilbert Spencer
(1892 - 1979)
The Farmer with his herd
£2,850
Sold
Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)
Size:
Height – 45cm
Width – 60cm
An alternative title is Semi-final of the English Cup, Blackpool v Spurs
In the catalogue of the Royal Academy Summer exhibition 1973, this painting is described thus: ‘Semi final of the English Cup, Blackpool v Spurs. A dramatic last minute goal. Ramsey fluffs his pass back to his goalkeeper’. In preparation for the exhibition, Spencer wrote (rather tactlessly) to Tottenham Hotspur Football Club to ask for details of their 1953 FA cup semi-final match against Blackpool. He recalled Alf Ramsey’s defensive error, which led to Blackpool scoring the decisive goal, ‘while Ramsey with his arms raised holding his head with his hands walked away in horror at what he had done’, In the letter, preserved in the Gilbert Spencer archive at Arts University Bournemouth, he wrote ‘I intend to exhibit a picture which I painted from the description at the time at the Royal Academy this year’. Blackpool beat Spurs 2-1, and went on to win the 1953 FA Cup.
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.
