Portrait of Joyce Peters no.1
This is one of two portraits of Spencer's friend, ballet dancer Joyce Peters, in whom he had a romantic interest: a finished portrait, and a study. He wrote to their mutual friend Dick Carline, 'I didn't care if I painted her lips veridian or vermilion it was all the same to me, great bliss' (Gough 2024, p. 148). Both were exhibited at the Goupil Gallery in 1929, titled no. 1 and no. 2; they are easily confused, but this is probably no. 1, the finished portrait.
Date: c. 1926-7
Inscriptions: lr: G. SPENCER
Tags: Portrait, Oil Paintings
Medium: Oil on canvas
Height (mm): 650
Width (mm): 450
Location: Private collection
Exhibition History: Goupil 1929 (19); British Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, 1930 (136); Goupil Gallery Salon 1930 (123); Goupil 1932 (46); Abbot Hall 2024
Provenance: Gilbert Spencer; Gillian Spencer; thence by descent; Private Collection
Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss, Portrait of an Artist, Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.115; Gough 2024 pp. 148-152, illus. p. 149
Date: c. 1926-7
Inscriptions: lr: G. SPENCER
Tags: Portrait, Oil Paintings
Medium: Oil on canvas
Height (mm): 650
Width (mm): 450
Location: Private collection
Exhibition History: Goupil 1929 (19); British Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, 1930 (136); Goupil Gallery Salon 1930 (123); Goupil 1932 (46); Abbot Hall 2024
Provenance: Gilbert Spencer; Gillian Spencer; thence by descent; Private Collection
Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss, Portrait of an Artist, Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.115; Gough 2024 pp. 148-152, illus. p. 149