Study for Bedmaking, with a squared arch, a mule and other auxiliary sketches (recto); Study for an Arch (verso)
Sir Stanley Spencer, RA (1891 - 1959)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1932
Materials
Pencil on paper
Measurements
350 x 250 mm
Place of origin
Burghclere
Order this imageCollection
Sandham Memorial Chapel, Hampshire
NT 719808
Summary
Pencil on paper, Study for Bedmaking, with a squared arch, a mule and other auxiliary sketches (recto); Study for an Arch (verso) by Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE, RA (Cookham 1891– Cliveden 1959), 1932. Bedmaking is a predella scene on the south wall. This small sketch is close to the finished version, notably the cocooned figure in bed on the left, and the bed-maker with his arms outstretched in the centre. In the sketch, the floor is boarded. It shows a hospital ward in a requisitioned house in Salonika, to which Spencer was sent when taken ill with malaria, but the imagery is clearly conflated with visions of Cookham. There is also a profile view of the predella moulding, which has been worked-up in full underneath the Bedmaking scene.
Provenance
Possibly given to the National Trust by John Louis (1881-1972) and Mary Behrend (1884 -1977), or given by George Behrend (1922 - 2010)
Credit line
The Behrend Collection, The Vyne (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Sir Stanley Spencer, RA (1891 - 1959), artist
Exhibition history
Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War, Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester, 2013 - 2015, no.ADD L3 Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War, Somerset House, London, 2013 - 2015, no.ADD L3 Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 2013 - 2015, no.ADD L3