The Ten Commandments: Sheep Stealing

This is one of a set of ten oil paintings based on Spencer’s illustrations for The Ten Commandments, commissioned by Robert Gathorne-Hardy in 1927 and published by the Mill House Press in 1934. The painting is known only from a photograph in the Gilbert Spencer archive by Paul Laib, annotated: ‘Ex. Leicester no. 17 "Sheep-stealing' from the exhibition of paintings by GILBERT SPENCER at the Leicester Galleries, Leicester Square [1939]’. A proof copy of the corresponding lithograph is annotated 'Painting copied 1938’. Sheep Stealing represents the 6th commandment, ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal’. The paintings were exhibited at the Leicester Galleries in February 1939.

Date: 1938
Inscriptions: lr: GILBERT SPENCER
Tags: Biblical, Oil Paintings
Medium: Oil on canvas
Location: Unknown
Exhibition History: Leicester Galleries 1939 (17)
Provenance: Gillian Spencer