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Witness History

Sir Stanley Spencer

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.41.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2016

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1926 Stanley Spencer, one of the most admired British painters of the twentieth century, began work on an ambitious project in the village of Burghclere near London. He'd been commissioned to fill a new chapel with images of his experiences in the First World War, at home and abroad. Vincent Dowd speaks to Spencer's daughters, Shirin and Unity Spencer, about their father and his work.

Photo: Stanley Spencer in 1958.(AP)

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness Podcasts from the BBC World Service with me Vincent Dowd. In 1926 Stanley Spencer, one of the most admired British painters of the 20th century began work on an ambitious project

0:16.3

in the village of Berkeley near London. He'd been commissioned to fill a new chapel

0:22.1

with images of his experiences in the First World War at home and abroad.

0:28.0

Many consider the 19 large paintings to be his finest work. I've been talking to the daughters of Stanley Spencer.

0:38.9

O'Hoo, big old key.

0:41.5

Allison Payton looks after the Sandham Memorial Chapel for Britain's National Trust

0:47.0

at Berkeley in Hampshire.

0:50.0

As I'm raising the blind here, you can see the light pouring into the chapel so you can see the 19 paintings commenced in

0:56.7

in 1926. The everyday life that Spencer experienced as a medical orderly, both at the

1:02.2

both at

1:02.9

hospital in Bristol and subsequently in

1:05.1

Salonica in Macedonia.

1:06.9

The red brick 1920's building doesn't really look like a chapel.

1:11.0

From outside, people said it resembled a biscuit factory, but inside on every

1:16.8

wall are Stanley Spencer's paintings of the War of 1914-18. Critics saw an influence of the Florentine Renaissance master Jotto.

1:27.0

Spencer's images vary from wildly imaginative,

1:31.0

almost religious images to the homely, soldiers washing or making their beds.

1:37.0

One of the most popular paintings probably in the chapel is this one,

1:40.0

Tea on the ward, a very English scene of a table piled with bread and jam, the injured

1:46.4

soldiers around it tucking into their tea time enjoyment.

1:50.3

There are two people still alive who as children observed how Stanley worked.

1:56.0

I'm Shereen Spencer. I'm the elder daughter of Stanley Spencer.

...

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