Stanley Spencer

Stanley Spencer was British painter known for his depictions of Christian themes in contemporary settings. Though Spencer employed realistic tones and colors, he often distorted forms and spatial planes to expressive ends, as seen in his The Resurrection, Cookham (1924–1927). In the work, the artist depicted the resurrection of dead loved ones in the graveyard of his local church. “Everything has a sort of double meaning for me, there's the ordinary everyday meaning of things, and the imaginary meaning about it all, and I wanted to bring these things together,” he once explained of his work. Born on June 30, 1891 in Cookham, United Kingdom, Spencer attended the Slade School of Fine Art in London alongside Paul Nash, David Bomberg, and Dora Carrington. After serving in the military during World War I, the artist incorporated his Christian faith with the traumas he experienced during the war. It was during this time that Spencer produced 17 murals for the Sandham Memorial Chapel, in honor of Lieutenant Henry Willoughby Sandham who died in the war. He went on to serve as an official war artist during World War II, depicting the shipbuilding yards in Port Glasgow, Scotland. In 1959, the artist was knighted in Buckingham Palace, he died later that year on December 14, 1959 in Cliveden, United Kingdom. Today, Spencer’s works are held in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Stanley Spencer Gallery in his hometown of Cookham, and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, among others.

[above text from Artnet]