Summary description
Oil painting on canvas, Kit Inspection by Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE, RA (Cookham 1891– Cliveden 1959), 1930. To an untidy, materialistic man like Spencer, a kit inspection must have undoubtedly been an irksome business, but on a different plane he was undoubtedly fascinated by the idea of soldiers surrounded by their own little world of trite everyday objects. The scene is the only painting set at Tweseldown Camp, near Farnham in Surrey where Spencer was sent from the Beaufort War Hospiatl for basic training before leaving for Macedonia.
This space in the Chapel was originally intended to hold a scene of an operating theatre (as illustrated in the 1923 working drawings) which Spencer finally rejected as being too disturbing and because it did not fit in with his general theme of companionship.
Provenance
Given with the chapel by John Louis Behrend (1881- 1972) and Mary Sandham Behrend (1884 - 1977), 1947
Makers and roles
Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE, RA (Cookham 1891– Cliveden 1959), artist
Exhibition history
Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War, Somerset House, London, 2013 - 2015, no.5
References
Bell 1992 Keith Bell, Stanley Spencer, A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, Phaidon Press, London 1992, p.422
Carline 1978 Richard Carline. Stanley Spencer at War, London, Faber and Faber, 1978, p.183
Stanley Spencer (ed. Keith Bell), Royal Academy of Arts, London with Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980, p.104
Behrend 1965 George Behrend, Stanley Spencer at Burghclere, London, MacDonald, 1965, p.8
Pople 1991 Kenneth Pople, Stanley Spencer: A Biography, Harper Collins London, 1991, p.120
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