Sashes Meadow, Cookham
Begun in the summer of 1914, this was painted directly from nature, as would be nearly all of Spencer’s landscapes. Interrupted by Spencer’s war service, it was not finished until 1919, when the large tree on the right was added. Sashes Meadow is adjacent to Odney Weir, where Spencer and his brothers swam regularly. The Spencer children inherited from their father a deep love of Cookham and a sense of awe of the natural world that surrounded them, which is apparent in this picture. It was bought by Augustus Daniel, later Director of the National Gallery (1929-33).
Date: 1914-9
Inscriptions: on verso of canvas and stretcher: ‘G. Spencer 1919’
Tags: Landscape, Oil Paintings
Medium: Oil on canvas
Height (mm): 464
Width (mm): 616
Frame height (mm): To be measured
Location: Tate N06021
Exhibition History: The Collection of the late Sir Augustus Daniel, Leicester Galleries, June 1951 (56); Reading, 1964 (5) repr. pl.2; FAS 1974 (3); SSG 2024
Provenance: Purchased by Sir Augustus Daniel from the artist October 1919; Leicester Galleries; from where purchased by Tate, 1951
Literature: John Rothenstein, Modern English Painters: Lewis to Moore, 1956, p.227. Illus. Sir Joseph Duveen, Thirty Years of British Art, 1930, p.152, as ‘The Green at Cookham’; Spencer 1974 pp. 35, 53, 62, 190; Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II. Gough 2024 pp. 60-1 & 109, illus. p. 60; Bradley Petitgas 2024 p. 12
Date: 1914-9
Inscriptions: on verso of canvas and stretcher: ‘G. Spencer 1919’
Tags: Landscape, Oil Paintings
Medium: Oil on canvas
Height (mm): 464
Width (mm): 616
Frame height (mm): To be measured
Location: Tate N06021
Exhibition History: The Collection of the late Sir Augustus Daniel, Leicester Galleries, June 1951 (56); Reading, 1964 (5) repr. pl.2; FAS 1974 (3); SSG 2024
Provenance: Purchased by Sir Augustus Daniel from the artist October 1919; Leicester Galleries; from where purchased by Tate, 1951
Literature: John Rothenstein, Modern English Painters: Lewis to Moore, 1956, p.227. Illus. Sir Joseph Duveen, Thirty Years of British Art, 1930, p.152, as ‘The Green at Cookham’; Spencer 1974 pp. 35, 53, 62, 190; Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II. Gough 2024 pp. 60-1 & 109, illus. p. 60; Bradley Petitgas 2024 p. 12