Stanley Spencer - ACE088.3

Frontispiece to The Child’s Bible. VO talking about this period encouraging him to look forward to "some world or heaven"; the Bible "was part and parcel of it" and he found paint to be the best medium "to bring that awareness to life". Garden at Cookham. Early painting, Two Girls and a Beehive (1910). Fields, etc; VO quotes John Dunne, "going to Heaven by Heaven", and describes imagining four figures in the meadow; the resulting painting, John Donne Arriving in Heaven (1911). Snail; chickens; wall; VO talks about "visions" being prompted by many things; Zacharias and Elizabeth (1913-1914) came from seeing a gardener at work – VO describes the painting. Photographs of residents of Cookham where "scenes from the Bible could happen anywhere": Christ Carrying the Cross (1920) in Cookham High Street. VO describing sources of some of the different elements. The Last Supper (1920), set inside a Cookham malthouse. The Betrayal (1922-1923), set at the back of "Fernlea"; photographs of Spencer at work on this painting; VO says that "the drawing and painting [of those early works] was the experiencing of heaven", but The Betrayal marked a personal change. Photographs of Spencer working on The Resurrection (aka The Cookham Resurrection, 1924-1927). Sunset; VO describes feeling this as similar to "the passing from this life to the next". Churchyard. VO describing imagining "the resurrection happen…". Film of Spencer talking about the painting and its different levels of meaning; details, including a representation of himself.