From Cookham to Canna: Artist Gilbert Spencer

Eclipsed by his more famous brother, Gilbert Spencer was a distinguished artist in his own right whose career included a little-known spell in Scotland, finds Mary Miers.

With the publication this year of a first biography, Gilbert Spencer is having a moment. Best known for his strong, clear landscapes and views of rural life, the artist emerged from the shadow of his more famous brother Stanley to forge his own distinctive career.

Read our full July art feature here.

TIMELINE 

1892: Born on 4 August in Cookham, Berkshire.

1909: Attends Ruskin School, Maidenhead.

1911 and 1912: Studies woodcarving in London.

1913: Attends the Slade School of Fine Art, London.

1915: Enlists in the Royal Army Medical Corps; sails to Salonika.

1919: Receives a commission from the British War Memorials Committee. Completes his studies at the Slade.

1923: First one-person show, at the Goupil Gallery, London.

1930: Marries Margaret Ursula Bradshaw.

1932-1948: Teaches at the Royal College of Art, London.

1936: Buys Tree Cottage, Upper Basildon, Berkshire, his main home until 1970

1940: Evacuated with RCA staff and students to Ambleside, Lake District.

1948-50: Head of Painting at Glasgow School of Art.

1950-1957: Head of Painting, Drawing, Modelling and Sculpture at Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts, London.

1959: Wife Ursula and brother Stanley die.

1960: Elected full Member (RA) of Royal Academy of Arts.

1964: Retrospective exhibition at Reading Museum and Art Gallery.

1971: Moves to Church Rise Cottage near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

1974: Retrospective exhibition at the Fine Art Society, London. Publishes Memoirs of a Painter.

1979: Dies on 14 January at Lynderswood Court, Essex.

The Cookham Brotherhood; The Art of Gilbert and Stanley Spencer’ is at the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham until 3 November.  www.stanleyspencer.org.uk

Liss Llewellyn’s ‘Gilbert Spencer; Works on Paper’ is selling online at: www. lissllewellyn.com/online-exhibitions

Gilbert Spencer by Paul Gough, with contributions from Sacha Llewellyn and Amanda Bradley Petitgas, is published by Yale (2024).

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