Fernlea, Cookham

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

This bold composition is dominated by a series of horizontal bands of strong colour: a green field partly in shadow in the foreground, red-brick houses amid dark trees in the centre and a solitary white cloud suspended in a bright blue sky. In this painting, Gilbert Spencer, the younger brother of the artist Stanley Spencer, depicts Fernlea in Cookham, the Spencer family home that was built by their grandfather Julius Spencer. Although Stanley became more famous over time, Gilbert was a notable artist, known principally for his landscapes. 

Generally, Spencer intended that the natural features – the bushes and the clouds – should dominate the man-made aspects of a landscape. He painted with a clarity that gives a near photographic quality to the work. This is accentuated by his use of terracotta, green and blue colours which, when combined, form a visually balanced image. The painting is imbued with a sense of stillness on a perfectly calm summer’s day: Spencer presents Cookham as an idyllic rural community somewhat cut off from the outside world. In his memoirs of 1974, he commented on his love of painting landscapes:

…what I painted was not only what I saw, but what I was feeling and hearing. Country sounds going on all round me put me in a happy mood, and got into my pictures.

Born in Cookham-on-Thames in 1892, Gilbert Spencer was the youngest of twelve children. He first attended the Ruskin School, Oxford, and then studied woodcarving at Camberwell School of Art, London, from 1910–11. In 1913 he attended the Slade School of Art, London, where he was awarded a life drawing prize in 1914. During the First World War he served in the Army in postings in Salonika and Egypt from 1915–18. After the War Spencer’s painting was increasingly well received and he had a second exhibition at the Goupil Gallery (1932). From 1934–36 he painted a series of murals for Balliol College, Oxford, and later served as an Official War Artist (1940–43). He became Professor of Painting at the Royal College of Art (1933–48); Head of Painting at Glasgow School of Art (1948–50); and Head of Painting at Camberwell School of Art (1950–57). He is remembered for his paintings of English rural life, and especially for his depiction of farm crafts and activities, for instance, A Cotswold Farm (1930–31) and The Progress of Husbandry (circa 1964), paintings that were both acquired by the Tate Collection.

Places

England, Cookham, Berkshire

Subjects

topography, townscape/cityscape, tree, flag, field, fence, house

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Gilbert Spencer (1892 - 1979)

Title

Fernlea, Cookham

Date

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 50.00 cm, width: 60.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Leicester Galleries, February 1958

Provenance

Collection of Sir Augustus Daniel; from whom purchased by the Leicester Galleries, London, as by Spencer Frederick Gore; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in March 1958

GAC number

4519