The Cookham Brotherhood | The Art of Gilbert and Stanley Spencer

About

The Cookham Brotherhood: The Art of Gilbert and Stanley Spencer promises a unique journey into the artistic minds of Stanley Spencer and his brother, Gilbert.

The exhibition is a celebration of the profound influence that Cookham had on the artistic expression of the Spencer brothers. The Cookham Brotherhood, a term coined to encapsulate their close bond and shared dedication to art, serves as the focal point of this showcase. Visitors will be immersed in the idyllic landscapes, intimate portraits, and thought-provoking narratives that define the brothers’ collective legacy.

According to the twentieth-century critic Eric Newton, Gilbert (1892-1959) and Stanley (1891-1958) Spencer were more than brothers: they were ‘affinities’. Born one year and four weeks apart, they were brought up in Cookham almost as twins. They lived in an unconventional but cultivated household, the rhythm of each life mirroring the other. For both of them music, religion and nature were a common language. Their sense of awe at the natural world was in many ways a very Victorian discipline, for that was the era from which they emerged as adults, stumbling into the twentieth century – an era of war and huge social and economic change.

Stanley wrote to Gilbert that ‘Cookham was for you as it was for me. We both had identical sympathies and a different sort of approach.’ For both, Cookham had all they needed, with commons, backwaters, Cliveden Woods and other ‘mysterious spaces.’ Whilst Stanley became more concerned with the metaphysical, religious otherworldliness of their home village, Gilbert – more ‘of the people’ than his brother – was more practically minded. Although not immune to the mysteries of Cookham, his early childhood was spent making models of animals, carts and wagons made from scraps of wood and leather at the dining room of their home, Fernlea. Cookham was, in Gilbert’s words, the ‘backdrop to all that followed. These early sculptural explorations culminated in one of his masterpieces, A Cotswold Farm (Tate), which will be one of the highlights of the exhibition.

The exhibition will explore Gilbert Spencer’s identity as an artist, with major loans from private collections as well as Tate. It will also feature comparative works by Stanley from the Stanley Spencer Gallery's collection, which demonstrate the brothers’ unified vision, and also their rivalry. Stanley considered Gilbert the more accomplished landscape artist, which may explain his reticence to engage with that practice later in life. The two brothers also fought for the affections of the artist Hilda Carline (1889-1950), the personable Gilbert ultimately losing out to the loquacious otherworldliness of his brother, who married her in 1925 - although Gilbert did accompany them on honeymoon. Stanley’s haunting portrait, Hilda with Hair Down (Stanley Spencer Gallery), on show in the exhibition, reveals the psychological complexity of the sitter, and of her relationship with Stanley.

The exhibition coincides with the publication of Gilbert Spencer. The Life and Work of a Very English Artist (Yale, by Paul Gough with contributions by Sacha Llewellyn and Amanda Bradley Petitgas).

Amanda Bradley Petitgas, curator and author, said: Gilbert Spencer's artistic vision was as singular as his brother's, the seeds of which were sown in Cookham - a mystical place for both brothers. It is wonderful to think of Gilbert as a boy sitting at the dining room table, making models of wagons and carts out of scraps of leather. It was an activity which led to one of his masterpieces some thirty years later - A Cotswold Farm. It is an imaginative tour de force, done entirely from memory, and a mature vision of a childhood passion nurtured in Cookham.