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View from Cookham Bridge - A First for the Spencer Gallery

(18 February 2003)

The Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham has gained a valuable Spencer painting "View from Cookham Bridge" (1936) under a government scheme which accepts cultural treasures in lieu of inheritance tax and then allocates them to a suitable home. Baroness Blackstone, the Arts Minister, has recently announced that 'View from Cookham Bridge' has now been allocated to the Spencer Gallery.

Patrick Cavendish, the late owner, lived opposite the former Turks Boatyard by the bridge and the painting shows a scene of punts upstream looking down from the bridge. Although the work has often been on loan to the Gallery, it will now join the Gallery's own collection and will be on regular display. It is already a popular picture with cards and prints on sale in the Gallery shop.

This is the first time that the Spencer Gallery has benefited under the government scheme. It is unusual for a small independent self-supporting gallery to qualify and much credit must go to the Gallery's hard working chairman Richard Hurley, who helped make a strong case for the picture to remain in the Gallery, which now, apart from the Tate, has the largest collection of Spencer's paintings, with at least 50 works on display.

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