Object Description
Sir Stanley Spencer RA (1891-1959)
Two figures in a garden
Pencil on arched shape paper.
Signed and dated 1939 lightly squared for transfer.
Provenance : The Piccadilly Gallery, London, where purchased by Mr and Mrs Philip Clark in April 1987.
Browse & Darby, London, 2014.
Exhibited : Bristol, Baker Baker, Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Stanley Spencer and John Bratby, March 1968, no. 7.
London, Piccadilly Gallery, Sir Stanley Spencer, R.A., September – October 1978, no. 47, illustrated.
This work is thought to be a preparatory drawing executed for Spencer’s Church House scheme. After completing Sandham Memorial Chapel in 1932, Spencer planned a series of fifty works to decorate an imagined building. No patron came forward to support the venture, and Church House was never executed. From 1932 onwards, the majority of figurative pieces by the artist were part of this series, which continued to evolve and change over the remaining years of the artist’s life.