The Last Supper

STANLEY

SPENCER

GALLERY

 

COOKHAM


MILLENNIUM EXHIBITION 

OF STANLEY SPENCER'S 

RELIGIOUS PAINTINGS

 

16 May to 10 September 2000


AN ENGLISH VISIONARY

The Stanley Spencer Gallery is celebrating the Millennium with a major exhibition of religious work by one of England's greatest visionary painters, Sir Stanley Spencer CBE RA. This follows the acclaimed Exhibition 'Seeing Salvation: The Image of Christ' at the National Gallery which included Spencer's The Resurrection, Cookham and Christ Carrying the Cross. 

Key paintings include The Nativity (1912), lent by University College, London, for which Spencer won a Slade prize; set in Mill Lane Cookham, by a chestnut tree it draws on Renaissance sources. The Betrayal (1914) from the gallery's own collection was painted after Spencer left the Slade and before he joined the army (RAMC) in 1915. The Last Supper (1920), also from the gallery's collection, is in a Cookham malthouse. The Robing of Christ (1922) and The Disrobing of Christ (1922) are based on the biblical story in Matthew's Gospel.  Both are on loan from the Tate Gallery. Villagers and Saints (1933) shows the Spencer boys playing marbles on the Day of Judgement. A triptych, The Resurrection with the Raising of Jairus's Daughter (1947) is on loan from Southampton Art Gallery and The Marriage at Cana (1 953) is a celebration of Spencer's spiritual marriage to Hilda (Carline), his first wife, after her death in 1950. Spencer's last unfinished work Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta (1959) shows Christ in a barge, by the Ferry Hotel, preaching in a basket chair. 

Some of the paintings were designed for Spencer's projected Church House which was planned as a sequel to the Sandham Memorial Chapel. Church House was to bring together all his most visionary and personal works and to celebrate Cookham as his heaven on earth. He saw the High Street as a church nave and the river as a side aisle. 

The exhibition (16 May - 10 September) will be officially opened at 3 p.m. on Saturday, 20 May by the Right Reverend Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford and Patron of the Friends of the Stanley Spencer Gallery, who is a well-known broadcaster with a special interest in Spencer's religious works. 


The gallery, which is self-supporting and run by volunteers, is open daily (10.30 - 5.30) from Easter to October. Admission for the Millennium Exhibition is: adults £1, concessions 50p and children free. A full catalogue of the works will be available. 


Contacts: 

Richard Hurley - Chairman (01628 523484) & 

Lesley Aston - Press/Publicity (01628 520537)  

The gallery will be open daily

10.30 am - 5.30 pm

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