A Brush with Heaven: Artist Stanley Spencer the Eccentric English Genius - Art History School
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- čas přidán 18. 06. 2024
- Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) was a very eccentric English painter whose works were deeply rooted in his personal experiences and Christian beliefs. Born in Cookham, a village in Berkshire, he began drawing and painting at a young age and later attended the Slade School of Fine Art in London.
Spencer's art was often focused on the everyday life of his community, as well as religious and mythological themes. He developed a unique style, characterized by vivid colors, flattened forms, and attention to detail.
During World War I, Spencer served as a medical orderly and painted scenes from the hospital where he worked. After the war, he returned to Cookham and painted many of his most famous works, including his series of murals at the Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere.
Throughout his career, Spencer faced criticism and controversy for his unconventional artistic approach and personal life. Despite this, his work continued to inspire and influence artists both in the UK and internationally.
Today, Spencer is widely regarded as one of the most important British artists of the 20th century, and his work can be seen in galleries and museums around the world.
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PATREON: I'd like to thank the following patrons whose support in the making of this video is much appreciated: Dee Ann Havely, Deirdre Feely, Denise Berg, Ivan Gilbert Rappaport, Mary Stewart, Nicolae Opris, S. Ryckman, Tatiana Lostorto, Tina Valentine, Visnja Zeljeznjak, Linda Frazier, Marnie Coutts, Stein Harald Os, Emily Liss, William Scott Griffiths, Dinny Hinds, Patrick Lefebvre, Philip Levene, Alena Sidorkina, Jeff Smith, Ashok Kanagasundram, Olivia McGoldrick, Rahman Yii, Sarah Hirsch, Kevin Coburn, Stacy Schweigler, Jennifer Ranghelli, Rachael Warrington, Deborah Smith, Emily, and Susan Valliant
Image Credits:
Imperial war Museum
National Portrait Gallery
The National Trust
Sir Stanley Spencer Estate
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I met him in 1957, when I was 8 - he was standing in for Dennis Compton, the famous cricketer, who was to have opened a church bazaar at Cookham. I remember that he was a small man with white hair, with a very straight fringe. I asked him for his autograph, which he kindly gave me, and I now wish I could remember where I put it! I can also remember on another occasion, seeing him down by the church, pushing his pram, with his art materials, easel and umbrella. What wonderful paintings he produced - hopefully he will never be forgotten.
That's wonderful.
@@ArtHistorySchool Thank you!
I cant believe Id never heard of this painter. His work fascinates me. No, more than that, it leaves me speechless. It's just the kind of painting I love ! Thank you for making me aware of it .
My pleasure. Cheers
@@ArtHistorySchool it seems Stanley Spencer suffered from some of the issues which troubled female artists, which takes my earlier comment redundant.
That was meant to be 'makes' not 'takes'
Good, I believe he’s one of the best, most talented painters ever….
Having spent many happy years myself in Cookham, one of the joys of this beautiful Thameside village is the Stanley Spencer Gallery...the scale and power of some of the artwork is simply extraordinary...
I've only been the once - to make the video - really is a beautiful place. Cheers
Learning such historical brilliance make me feel VERY SMALL. Thank God for this great artist and your stellar storytelling. Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it! Cheers
VERY SMALL in all caps in a story about a painter where the visual is everything 😂- irony is a lost art
I cannot wait for your next video. I knew nothing of this British painter whose work is quite amazing.
Really pleased you enjoyed Stanley Spencer. The videos take a few weeks to make. Cheers
Excellent as usual!Keep it up Paul Sir
Thanks, will do!
An absolutely fantastic painter, love his garden paintings...they give off such a English feeling
Many thanks
Excellent! Lively , informative , very interesting - thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! Cheers
Thanks for that. Really gave me an appreciation of Stanley Spencer as a man and artist!
You are welcome.
Outrageous that we in America don't often hear about these great artists! Looking at his work there are a bunch of other painters who either influenced him in one way or another: Van Gogh, Lucien Freud, Thomas Hart Benton, Diego Rivera, Soutine, etc etc etc. Anyway, I loved this and to me was one your best Paul.
Glad you enjoyed the video, hopefully a few more Americans will get to know dear old Stanley. Thanks and Cheers
An amazing artist.. Thank you
My pleasure 😊
I have never have studied him but loved this very much.
Glad you liked the the video and the artist.
You absolutely bring him to life!
Cheers
Brilliant!
The sweater.
The artist too.
Many thanks, glad you like the 'tank top' as we call them. Cheers
@@ArtHistorySchool haha! I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you're astrology sun sign..........hmmmmm.......
Aquarius?
What a wonderful video and story. I didn't know about this artist. He was certainly unique and clearly a talented soul. Thank you Paul.
Glad you enjoyed it, many thanks.
I love your videos, they're so so interesting and inspiring, it's great seeing so many different styles of painting and drawing and it makes the life from the past much more understandable, thank you!
Thank you so much 😀
An unexpected pleasure, thank you for this fascinating introduction to Mr Spencer and his work.
You are very welcome
...among the best in the series... kudos...
Cheers, much appreciated
Thank you so much for your videos. The are so informative and inspiring, your passion just radiates through every minute of it. It's hard to believe you are doing them all on your own!
Thank you, I'm glad you appreciated them as it does take a while to produce each one.
Thanks. Im loving all your pieces.
That's great. Cheers
Thank you for another superb video art lesson. It was fascinating to learn more about this artist amongst whose paintings I knew only a few. A bizarre life but an incredible British creative. Your channel is such a wealth of art learning.
Glad you enjoyed it! Many thanks.
Thanks Paul. Another wonderful art history of someone I never heard of, but now, totally appreciate!
Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers
What a fascinating story! And a brilliant artist 👩🎨
Glad you enjoyed the video.
His Industrial paintings are wonderful (shipyards) I mean ... his home village looked like a beautiful place
Cookham is wonderful, but expensive
Very much enjoyed this. I am unable to explain how this artist managed to fly under my radar, but I am now captivated by his interesting life and painting style. Just ordered two books about him, can't wait to delve deeper. I feel as if I've been given a present, thank you so much. 🌻
Wonderful! There is so much more to Spencer that I was able to cover in 18 minutes. I hope you enjoy delving deeper. Cheers
Excellent Paul. Very interesting and informative!
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks Andrew
Thank you. Stanley Spencer was very much his own artist. You spoke well of his drive and style. The self portrait with his naked wife speaks volumes about their relationship. It really is a masterpiece.
Cheers. He was a very individual artist.
Thank you Paul Priestly for an excellent overview of the life and work of British artist Stanley Spencer. Spencer is perhaps my most favourite twentieth century fine artist, and where his depiction of human form still seems odd in a sort of saggy, rag doll way, he was a visionary in much the same way as Francis Bacon was. Perhaps in time the BBC will produce a full, warts and all series on Stan Spencer? His work deserves to be re-evaluated.
I agree, he is certainly under rated.
I'd never heard of him before. He's great. Thanks for uploading :)
Yes, he was quite a character. Glad you enjoyed it . Cheers
This was terrific, the best documentary I have ever seen on Spencer.
That's great, much appreciated.
I am really loving your art histories. What a brilliant artist Spencer was. Very influential. His sense of composition and draughtmanship are superb. What a talent, as evidenced so early in his extraordinary drawings. Thankyou so much. Will have to consider patreon. There is a lot of work in these podcasts.
Thank you so much 😀 Cheers
Thank you Paul that was brilliant.
Cheers
Another great video by with a wonderful number of illustrations.
Thanks.
You're very welcome
I saw a major show of SS here in San Francisco, terrific. What a tangled web we weave. One of a kind. This video traverses so much biography and art, really terrific. Thank you.
I only managed to give a snap shot of dear old Stanley - he was quite a character. Glad you enjoyed the video.
I really enjoyed this video! You have a talent for making art accessible and exciting.
Thank you so much!
Can't say most of his paintings really appeal to me - but there's no denying their brilliance.
Yes, he was brilliant but his work doesn't appeal to all. Cheers
Thank You. You incorporate so much information which make the videos so very interesting. The Artists you share, I really never heard of ...so much talent "unburied" All The Best
Wow, thank you! Cheers
Brilliant !!!! Both Stanley and YOU !!!!
Cheers
There will be a really good video about you and your impassioned impassioning use of descriptive words condensed into a mini lecture shining the light for thousands thank you for your delicate showing of nuance in this roughening world
Many thanks. Cheers
Great and thorough episode. I apologize for my earlier outburst. I will try not to nitpick again or look for flaws. You are doing a great service, and I appreciate you. Everyone has his or her own perspective, and yours is a steady one. Cheers.
No worries! Everyone has an opinion and that's how it should be. Cheers
Great retrospective! Love your channel. Signed a sahm with an unused art history degree
Really pleased you enjoy my channel. Cheers
Amazing piece of art
Certainly is
I have read some of the comments here and I, too, have never heard of this artist. Thank you for sharing this information. I found it fascinating.
You're very welcome. Cheers
Really amazing.. thank you🤗🤗🤗😉
Cheers
Really love and appreciate your short bios Paul 👍
Many thanks
So very glad that you did a terrific and informative video on an artist that deserved to be known.. Wow what a character artist.. !! somewhere between Mannerism, Thomas Hart Benton, and cartoonish ala Bosch. Thank you so much for truly educating all of us with real artists.. not the tried and sometimes true of the biblical Janson/ Kenneth Clarke.
I am the nemesis that came after you for doing the trite and the banal of common art history.
There are and were so many terrific unknown painters.
The Newlyn School from Penzance, The Dutch Hague School, The Glasgow Boys, The American Tonalists,
The 19c Russian School, The French Naturalists.
Again, many thanks . Cindy O
Hi Cindy, you are right I did cover the 'big names' simply to get views and subscribers, now I can concentrate on artists that I find interesting and perhaps need to be better known. Your suggestions are great. Cheers
I like your art history videos. I Gathering more information from you.Thank you sir.💐🌷🌹💐
You are most welcome
Many thanks for this portrayal of this fascinating artist!!
My pleasure!
What a fascinating story telling, and Spencer was real talented artist.
Thank you, Glad you enjoyed my video.
Your style is very conducive to taking on quite a bit of information that you're in imparting. I really like everything you do by way of visuals and of course the technical Side of creating these videos. Thank you very much.
I appreciate that! Many thanks
Truly unique indeed. Thanks for the video
You are very welcome. Cheers
I enjoy painting but creating art has its difficulties. Watching your content helps me connect with how human and unique these other artists are/were. And overall your videos entertaining too. Thank you.
Thank you so much 😀
Great as always! Loved the vest choice this week!
Cheers, although in this country it's called a pullover. A vest is what we wear under a shirt. Interesting, same language but quite different meanings. Glad you enjoyed the video.
I really did enjoy every second of it. Great video!!
Glad you enjoyed it! Cheers
Muy bien hecho, excelente trabajo. Muchas felicidades. Saludos desde México.
Muchas gracias. Saludos desde Inglaterra
As an artist I really appreciate these information. Amazing ❤️
Thank you very much. Cheers
Thank you for not acting this one out. Very enjoyable with this style of presentation. Well done! Nsw art gallery Australia have an excellent example of his work. Until your video I did not realise what a great influence he was on L freud.
Thank you very much!
Wonderful, thanks!
Glad you liked it! Cheers
Lovely. Thanks very much
Most welcome 😊
Fantastic presentation! I learned a lot about this great artist whom I previously knew nothing
He was quite a character. Cheers
thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching!
Loved this very informative video, what a prolific and talented artist.👍👍
He certainly was
Excellent presentation
Thank you
I did really enjoy this!
Thank you. One of my favourite teachers, the late Tom LaPierre, always spoke so highly of Stanley Spencer. He'd told us that at one time, Spencer completed large paintings on a narrow scroll of canvas which he would plan out exactly to join up with other narrow scrolls to make big expansive paintings. I'm not sure if this is true, since it's not mentioned in your video but it has always stayed with me since art college days. I saw some original Spencer pieces during my one trip to England in 1984. I so enjoyed learning more about him this morning.
Best wishes, dave
I don't know about that specifically, but is sounds very much like the sort of thing Spencer would do. Glad you enjoyed the video. Cheers
@@ArtHistorySchool to be more specific; my teacher told us that at the time, Stanley Spencer only had a closet space to work in, which was maybe 6' wide. So his scroll fit in the tiny studio against the back wall, and because he had it planned out by a master grid, he could plot exactly where everything had to go so once each strip of 36" or 48" was stitched together he would have a huge painting. This was the same teacher who taught us that Charles Burchfield often did his watercolours by joining pieces of watercolour paper precisely so he could either alter or enlarge them, and they were matched so well that people couldn't tell. Apparently he'd had experience in the wallpaper trade so he was a master at cutting and joining.
All part of an encouragement to solve problems creatively and to not be hampered by limitations. Cheers dave
muchas gracias, muy entretenido e informador, no conocía a éste excelente y personal artista, un abrazo grande de otro artista desde Montevideo, América del sur.
Muchas gracias, contenta de que hayan disfrutado el video. Saludos desde Somerset, Inglaterra.
Brilliant video, thanks
Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers
This is my favourite CZcams channel
That's great. thanks
Amazing !!
Cheers
Thank you! That was fantastic 👌🏻
Cheers
Very impressive artist.
He certainly was.
Great video, and also great fairisle sleeveless. I've got the exact same one, same style.
Great minds!
Wonderful
Thank you! Cheers!
Great!❤
Thanks! 😊
Great video!!
Thanks!
Fantastic
Cheers
what an interesting chap!
He certainly was
Thank you 🙏
Cheers
another radibonzical video, thank you
Thank you
Thank you very much!! That was very interesting!! xXX👍👍👍
Glad you liked it. Cheers
You are extraordinary
Cheers
Thanks sir.👍
You are welcome
Beautiful waistcoat professor, i hope soon to see something about Modigliani or Hopper.
We would call it a pullover or tank top, glad you like it. Modigliani is on my list. Cheers
Thank you : )
You are welcome! Cheers
Thanks! Another great video! I grew up near Cookham, so lovely to see the photos as well as all the paintings. The landscapes he painted of the Cookham area really capture how it is.
Glad you liked the video, I spent a day in Cookham photographing it for the video. It really is a lovely place.
Art History School: INTERESTING!
Cheers
One of my favourite artists; I saw the Burghclere works in the Pallant Gallery while the chapel was being renovated - they were in 2 small side rooms with dim lighting. After spending a good deal of time studying them, I left the room and looked back, and they seemed to glow through the aperture of the arched door. It was completely magical and something I have never experienced at a gallery or museum before.
But one thing that perplexes me slightly, is the lack of information regarding his technique; I have seen a quote (possibly by Patricia or Hilda) that said she had observed him painting and he used a very small brush, working from side to side without going back. His final, unfinished painting seems to evidence that. Although he achieves incredible nuance with colours, the paintings I saw had remarkably thin, single layers of paint. But I have also seen his early works and these appeared to have been on stained canvas with blocking in - at some point, he seems to have ditched this because, on some of his paintings, white canvas is clearly visible through the paint. In fact, I know more about the painting technique of Raphael than I do of an artist who died mid-last century.
Interesting, i think you are correct his technique changed and adapted over time. If you are ever in Cookham again, the Stanley Spencer Gallery has the painting he was working on when he died. This showed how he had squared up the design, presumably from sketches and then completed sections at a time.
Thanks!
Many thanks for your donation, it is much appreciated. Cheers
Oh, my God ... what an AMAZING painter. I'm left stunned. Oddly enough, I remember, years ago, Sister Wendy talking about him. When I saw the name (on your video), I had a vague stirring of memory ... and felt pulled to watch. I hadn't liked the painting Sister Wendy showed (I ADORE her!) but as she talked about him, I became more interested. (It's uncanny how she could get you to become interested in a really unremarkable painting... by weaving a story around it!) However, she did not show any of his other works. I cannot get over his extraordinary talent and how prolific he was, considering that each painting is so detailed, so intensely demanding. He sounds bonkers, but there is no denying that he was deeply gifted ... and his work is very moving. It's just beautiful... I was entranced. (Seriously. By the end, I realized I was sitting there with my mouth gaping open!!). I want to watch it all over again.
...(My mother was an ambulance driver in London during the Second World War ... during the blitz!)
Thank you so much for all of your wonderful videos. This one in particular really moved me.
Without Art, I really wouldn't see much value to being on the planet. So these are precious to me.
Wow, thank you. Really pleased you enjoyed the video. He was a quite extraordinary character. Cheers
@@ArtHistorySchool Yes! Thank YOU!
Brilliant bro 👏
Thank you so much 😀
very good
Thank you! Cheers!
Voice overs work so much better than onscreen personalities. More Space can be allotted to the actual art. just a preference.
Noted
Very interesting. Thank you sir. I have to say that the photograph of Sir Stanley eg 10:31 immediately reminded me of Sir David Hockney! Maybe they were distantly related in life as in art!
They are not related I'm afraid and David Hockney is not a Knight. He turned down the Knighthood from the Queen, because, as he said, 'I don't rate gongs!'
@@ArtHistorySchool I realised that they were not related but (to me, looked similar) However I did not know DH had not accepted a knighthood despite one being offered so my apologies! I believe he accepted the Order of Merit so he either liked that gong or maybe the colours of the ribbon attached to it!
Great video 👍👍👍👍
Thank you 👍
Interesante vida de un gran pintor gracias
Eres muy bienvenida
Now that I have been made aware there is a school named Slade, I shall wonder if the band, Slade, is named as a result of a band member's attendance there. Anyway, please accept my gratitude and thanks for narrating videos with a voice that engages us because we know we're following someone who cares very much for the subject matter and proves it each and every time.
The Slade has nothing to do with the band of the same name. Really pleased you appreciate my videos. I enjoy making them and it's nice to know people like them. Cheers
Until your video I did not realise what a great influence he was on freud.
He's very under rated.
It seems there is often a trade-off for genius. Reality, whether in their work or the world is flexible, a matter of perspective and when they are occasionally confronted with "real" reality, they seem surprised by it, just as we are shocked by glimpses into their world. I don't doubt that as we pity the poor, suffering artist, they occasionally pity us right back.
A genius often tends to be so focused on their own creativity that they are quite unaware of the real world around them.
thank your
You are welcome
Ty!
Cheers
Interesting video. I wonder how Hilda and the daughters survived, did the daughters ever have any relationship with him? Why wasn't he prosecuted as a deadbeat dad?
The daughters doted on him, but hated Patricia.