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Sir Stanley Spencer

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Sir Stanley Spencer

by Ida Kar
quarter-plate film negative, 1954
Purchased, 1999
Photographs Collection
NPG x127159

Sitterback to top

  • Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959), Painter. Sitter associated with 34 portraits, Artist of 5 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Ida Kar (1908-1974), Photographer. Artist associated with 1564 portraits, Sitter in 137 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Spencer was elected a Royal Academician in 1950, and in 1955, the year after Kar photographed him with the umbrella that accompanied him wherever he went, he was honoured with a major Tate retrospective. He was knighted in 1959, shortly before his death.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Freestone, Clare (appreciation) Wright, Karen (appreciation), Ida Kar Bohemian Photographer, 2011 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 10 March to 19 June 2011), p. 65 Read entry

    Spencer commuted back to his childhood home in Cookham-on-Thames, Berkshire, while studying at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (1907-12) alongside Paul Nash and Mark Gertler. Here his small stature and pudding-bowl haircut ensured that Spencer stood out from the crowd. Following his studies, Spencer's paintings began to demonstrate his strong religious convictions and, after enlisting in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War, he developed an interest in the human body. Spencer's most noted works include The Resurrection, Cookham (1924-6), depicting his love for his first wife, Hilda, and Double Nude Portrait: The Artist and His Second Wife (1937). Following his work as an official war artist during the Second World War, Spencer returned to Cookham, where he became an increasingly eccentric character. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1950, and in 1955, the year after Kar photographed Spencer with the umbrella which accompanied him wherever he went, he was honoured with a major retrospective at the Tate Gallery. Spencer was knighted in 1959, shortly before his death. Kar's portrait of Spencer was used for the front cover of Maurice Collis's biography of the artist published in 1962.

Portrait setback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1954back to top

Current affairs

Roger Bannister runs the four-minute mile. Bannister was the first man to achieve the 'miracle mile', a feat that was thought by some to be impossible, beating his rival, the Australian John Landy, to the record. Bannister went on to a career as a distinguished neurologist.
Food rationing ends in Britain.

Art and science

J.R.R. Tolkien publishes the first two parts of the Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Tolkien was an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon language and literature and drew on his scholarly interests in history, language and mythology to create the fictional land of Middle Earth where the books are set.
Williams Golding publishes, Lord of the Flies.

International

The South East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) is established in Bangkok. This international defence organisation was established as part of the 'containment' policy of limiting the influence of communism. SEATO was, however, found to be ineffective as the member organisations failed to agree on combined action; it was disbanded in 1977.

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