Terwick Mill (alt. title: Man at a Sluice Gate on the Thames)

Spencer's landscapes were usually painted en plein air, and rarely include figures. The enigmatic figure in the foreground of this painting implies that this is partly an imaginative composition. The distinctive profile of Terwick Mill was probably painted from sketches made the previous year, while Spencer was visiting nearby Iping, where he painted View from Iping House (c. 1931, untraced) and Spring at Iping (c. 1931, untraced).

Date: 1932
Inscriptions: ll: GILBERT SPENCER 1932
Tags: Landscape, Figures, Oil Paintings
Medium: Oil on canvas
Height (mm): 715
Width (mm): 560
Location: Private collection
Exhibition History: Goupil 1932 (68); Brighton Art Gallery and Museum 'Wilfrid Evill memorial Exhibition' 1965 (191); Abbot Hall 2024
Provenance: Wilfrid Evill; Sotheby's London 19 November 1980 as 'Cookham'; Christie's, London, 9 November 1984, lot 113; private collection; Christie's, London, 21 March 2018 lot 157; Liss Llewellyn
Literature: Gough 2024 p. 187, illus. p. 186