Christ at Cookham

(Brings back memories of a personal visit a few years ago)

Spencer developed a naïve style, influenced in part by Giotto and the colourful primitivism of Paul Gauguin.

His most ambitious work was the consequence of his Great War travails: a cycle of 19 paintings for the Sandham Memorial Chapel , which took five years to complete.

Spencer's earthy Christian faith and his preoccupation with death and resurrection are evident in much of his work.

Many paintings such as The Resurrection, Cookham (1923–27), set biblical scenes in the village and depict actual villagers as Biblical characters. Today such works, in the rare event that they come up for auction, sell for immense sums.

During Spencer's lifetime it was his landscapes that were in demand. His dealer would press him to turn out more.Many of his best landscapes are views of his beloved Cookham.

[

    

Sunday Worship 
26/04/2009 

bbc radio 4

Celebrating the spirituality of painter Stanley Spencer. From Holy Trinity Church, Cookham

Sir Stanley Spencer (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Much of his greatest work depicts Biblical scenes, from miracles to Crucifixion, happening not in the Holy Land, but in Cookham, the small village where he was born and spent most of his life; fellow-villagers frequently stand in for their Gospelcounterparts, lending on occasion Christian teachings an eerie immediacy. He referred to Cookham as "a village in Heaven."