Beschreibung:

Sir Stanley Spencer R.A. (British, 1891-1959)Mrs Linda Few Brown oil on canvas 84 x 63.5 cm. (33 x 25 in.) Painted in 1958FootnotesProvenance Commissioned by the sitter's parents in 1958, thence by family descent to the present owner Private Collection, U.K Exhibited London, Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition, 2 May-16 August 1959, cat.no.106 Literature 'Our artists look at us - honestly', News Chronicle, 1 May 1959, p.4 (ill.b&w) 'Academy portrait', Maidenhead Advertiser, 8 May 1959, p.9 (ill.b&w) Exh.cat., The Royal Academy Illustrated 1959, Royal Academy, London, 1959, p.19 (ill.b&w) Keith Bell, Stanley Spencer A Complete Catalogue of Paintings, 1992, Phaidon Press, London, p.360, cat.no.433 (col.ill.) At the time of this portrait, Stanley Spencer had long been acknowledged as one of the leading British painters of the twentieth century. Famed for his imaginative figure paintings and biblical themes, often set in his home village of Cookham, he was also a distinguished war artist. His remarkable murals in the Sandham Memorial Chapel - presented to the National Trust in 1947 - commemorate his experiences in the army during the First World War. In both World Wars, he was a critically acclaimed official war artist. A versatile genius, he additionally painted a series of mesmerising landscapes and portraits. In his earlier years, the sitters in his portraits were frequently members of his social circle. Throughout his career he produced an outstanding series of honest and uncompromising self-portraits. In the 1930s he painted some startlingly intimate nude portraits of Patricia Preece, his future second wife, two of which were double nudes of the artist with Patricia. When he painted his then lover Daphne Charlton - Daphne 1940 (Tate) - he deliberately reduced her to tears each day to get, as he told her, and she recounted to me, some emotion into her face. In the 1950s, already a C.B.E. and R.A., he was much in demand as a portraitist, receiving commissions from various friends and patrons (the two often became synonymous). There was the added attraction of their likenesses being exhibited at the Royal Academy. Spencer responded particularly well to his female sitters, often showing them in a half-length format at home in a relaxed setting, as in this portrait of Linda Few Brown. This is one of Spencer's finest late portraits, and forms a striking image, in which the twenty-three year old Linda leans over the stable-style door, at the front of her house, Sherlocks, in the heart of Cookham Dean. Dressed informally, she seems very close to the viewer, as if about to speak. Linda and Peter Few Brown moved to Cookham Dean on their marriage in 1955. In the picture, her engagement and wedding rings are clearly visible. A few years later they moved again, to Primrose Hill, another house in the Dean. The format of a woman at a door or window has historical precedents, for instance in seventeenth century Dutch paintings such as Rembrandt's Girl at a Window (1645) (Dulwich Picture Gallery). In the oft quoted but presumably apocryphal account by an early owner, the French theorist Roger de Piles Rembrandt was supposed to have placed the picture in his window, so that it was mistaken for a real girl. Spencer for his part painted a notably modern woman, but the effect is equally immediate. In this case, the pose was suggested by Linda's mother Dorothy Milling who with her husband Geoffrey commissioned the portrait; it was regarded locally as a wedding gift. Spencer wrote of the picture on Sherlocks notepaper to his dealer Dudley Tooth, in an undated letter: 'Mrs Milling is bringing in the portrait of Mrs Linda Few Brown. She has given me the cheque for it. It was to have been full of flowers & creepers but I was not able to manage [as he had been ill]. She wanted to pay me more but I insisted on two hundred & seventy five guineas. Doing the painting was a very enjoyable experience. It may be rather an interesting thing to frame. As it was