Product Description
Stanley Spencer's reputation has grown rapidly in recent years, and his visionary contribution to British art and his true stature as an artist are now internationally recognised. This is an abridged version of the 1992 catalogue raisonne of Spencer's work compiled by the same author, reproducing many of the illustrations and some of the original narrative. The work is presented chronologically and divided between figurative and landscape. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Not enough for me
Unfortunatly he didn't make enough figurativ painting as Freud did. Should make a less expensive book about the figurativ Stanley. Very nice big detailed good quality pictures.

the best of Stanley spencer
I have read most of the books on Stanley Spencer. This book has the most plates and an in depth discussion of the work and life of Sir Stanley. Another book I would like is : the sketchbooks of Stanley Spencer. His drawings are not slick they are a bit crude and naive by art school standards He was a student of Tonks . Philip Evergood also studied with Tonks and his drawings are similar. They have a childlike naivete that I like.

Stanley Spencer
This is an excellent survey of the work of the English painter Stanley Spencer.It contains work from the early periods of his life that you rarely have an opportunity to see. There is a very in depth and critical veiw intothe life of this great artist. The reproductions of the work are almost allin color and of high quality. This is a book that clearly shows thatSpencer was that English artist who has been the inspiration of manyEnglish artist who followed him. The range of his work is truly exceptionalfrom the religious to the nude studies and portraits of family. This is theBook that is a must to have if you are looking at figurative painting inthe 20th century. It is expansive and completely beautiful. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good, but not THAT good.
I should preface my review by saying that I have not read any of the text yet and so have not considered that aspect in my rating.That said, I was really disappointed with this book.I am an artist and I appreciate visually stunning art books, but this is not one. Perhaps in 1989 (first edition) it would be acceptable to print so many black and white images in an art book, I'm not sure.But by 2008, it is almost inexcusable and really outdated.There seems to be about three b/w images per one in color.Really disappointing, and it certainly doesn't deserve the 5 stars it currently has.If there is a redeeming quality, it would be the inclusion of many lesser known British artists of the period whom I have never seen before.

Superb, so far as it goes
This review is based on the 1995 UK reissue.

What a superb book! An awesome depth of scholarship, but arrayed in a palatable semi-encylopaedia -like arrangement.Wonderful reproductions of all manner of rare paintings, many in colour and many at a size large enough to see fine detail and even brush-strokes. If you think you've "seen" some of these works on the web, these reproductions will make you think the web versions look very fuzzy and 'off-color'.

Three gripes: 1) the sub-title would lead you to think that the book covers the post-1930 neo-Romanticism revival and on through the Second World War. True Stanley Spencer is in here briefly, but only three early works and they are not his best. Otherwise, coverage after around 1929 is poor. 2) no index! 3) it's mostly painting - no literature or poetry, no music, no photography, no film-making, very little sculpture. There are whole books yet to be written on post-1900 British Romanticism that go 'beyond painting'.But until we get them, enjoy this gem of a book.

An Indispensible book
Quite simply the best book/catalogue of it's type I have ever seen. The presentation of the book is good, as is the reproduction of the paintings. The short biographies of the artists are quite simply the brilliant, and contain more information than much longer articles. If you only have one book about late romantic art have this one. ... Read more

Product Description
Stanley Spencer`s extreme combination of the homely and the weird has baffled viewers of his paintings. In this book, MacCarthy investigates Spencer`s life, sets his work in its cultural context, and emphasizes the links between his life and his paintings. This volume provides a comprehensive account of a profoundly original artist and his work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best art book I've ever seen; definitive
This book is very well put together. If you like Spencer you will refer to it constantly above all other works about him (except a full length biography). There's a lot of writing about his life, and there are many,many color plates of his paintings that provide real depth of viewing whatthis person was about. All of this is in a pleasing font and design. Thebest art book I've ever seen. ... Read more

Product Description
Stanley Spencer was the most intensely local of all great artists, and his native village of Cookham was a central source of inspiration. Yet he was far from parochial, and woven into Duncan Robinson's account of the artist's career is a just appreciation of his greatness and of his place in the wider context of European art. This book celebrates both the range and the powerful individual quality of Spencer's achievements as a religious visionary, war artist, portrait painter and landscapist. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent Introduction
I really enjoyed this book. This is a concise (about 120 pages of text) and well illustrated (about 100 images) introduction to the remarkable English painter Stanley Spencer.Robinson's text provides a useful biography of Spencer's career, a good idea of his rather unconventional ideas, and short accounts of how he fit into the artistic currents of his times.The selection of images is very good and illustrates well the range of Spencer's work and its evolution over his long and productive career.
Spencer is known best for his religious paintings, notably the powerful mural The Resurrection of the Soldiers in the Sandham Memorial Chapel.A man of deep and unconventional faith, Spencer produced a large number of canvases with religious themes, usually fusing the sacred and the quotidian.A native of the village of Cookham, where he spent much of his working life, the environs of his town were literally sacred ground to Spencer. This resulted in a very personal but surprisingly effective icongraphy.
What makes this book particularly enjoyable is the revelation of the range of Spencer's art.Spencer was also an outstanding landscape painter and a superb portraitist.This book reproduces a number of lovely landscape paintings.Some of the portraits reproduced, both drawings and paintings, are stunning.

An Introduction, by fermed
Duncan Robinson is a professor at Yale, and his book on Stanley Spencer is a fine introduction to this mad eccentric from Cookham-on-Thames. Not long ago (1998) there was an exhibit of Spencer's work that traveled the United States, and so his name in this country is not as unknown as it used to be. Whether one is familiar with his work or not, this is a well balanced and nicely printed book, with over 100 reproductions, of which at least half are in color. I keep the book handy and have given copies of it to unsuspecting friends and relatives, who then (usually) become addicts of Mr. Spencer.

For those who have never seen Spencer's work, I certainly recommend using the internet as a first step in getting a feel for what he biographical and bibliographical information (although Robinson's book is not mentioned). The main drawback about looking at pictures on the internet is that many are so small and distorted that they dishonor the works they are trying to show; still, a visual approach is more effective than trying to describe the work of this extraordinary painter verbally. The pictures in Robinson's book, in contrast, are excellent reproductions and quite adequate as a means of presenting Spencer's work. I took a copy of this book to his exhibit and was satisfied with the quality of the reproductions one of England's most important painters of the 20th century. ... Read more

Product Description
Stanley Spencer is seen as one of the most innovative British painters of his era. His works include pre-First World War paintings and complex pieces of the mid-1930s, produced at a time of marital and stylistic crisis. This catalogue celebrates the achievements of an artist who explored, experimented and developed his work over five decades and accompanies the exhibition of Spencer's work at Tate Britain, presenting him as a major artist of the 20th century who was profoundly engaged with the shifting nature of modern life. The book includes an essay by the painter and writer Timothy Hyman which focuses on the prolonged but strangely fruitful crisis of the 1930s, while examining both the visionary and realist strands in Spencer's imagination. Cultural historian Patrick Wright discusses Spencer's return to England after the First World War and the circles in which he moved. ... Read more

Product Description
One of the most highly regarded and well known of all twentieth-century British artists, Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) is famous for two things. He immortalized the Berkshire village of Cookham, where he was born and spent most of his life. And he celebrated sex both on his canvases and through his unconventional understanding of relationships.

Perhaps best known for his paintings of biblical subjects set in and around Cookham--in particular, The Resurrection, Cookham--Spencer was also an official war artist during both World Wars. In his paintings and in his life, he reveled in the intense ordinariness of the world he inhabited. His mature art fuses things most often thought of as separate: religion and sex, the real and the imaginary, public and private, the young and the old, the self and others.

In this excellent introduction to the artist and his work, Kitty Hauser reveals how Spencer's art grew out of places, experiences, and social relations that enriched his imagination. Though Spencer is often described as visionary, this book shows that his brand of mysticism was firmly grounded in material reality--in landscapes, homes, and the human relationships he felt so strongly. ... Read more

Product Description
Recently recognized as the greatest English painter of the 20th century, Stanley Spencer is at the forefront of the international art community with his unusual biblical and semi-biblical scenes, his gripping realist portraits, and his intense English landscapes. Kenneth Pople's coherent biography demonstrates the oneness of the artist's life with his art. Photos throughout.Amazon.com Review
Painter Stanley Spencer is a biographer's dream: his art isintensely personal, reflecting real people and places from his life;the controversy surrounding his private life and work guaranteed astream of contemporary accounts about both; moreover, he was anenthusiastic chronicler of his own intentions, leaving behind vastquantities of diaries, letters, and notes. Author Kenneth Pople hasutilized the wealth of information about his subject to produceStanley Spencer: A Biography, a scrupulously researchedexamination of the complicated artist. Though Spencer's art had fallenout of favor in the years following his death, Stanley, theaward-winning play based on his life, has renewed public interest inthe man and his work, making Pople's biography timely, indeed.

Stanley Spencer is divided into 47 chapters, each oneconcentrating on a specific painting, through which Pople attempts toilluminate a particular period of the artist's life.He is especiallystrong at analyzing the work itself, but less so at breathing lifeinto the people who surrounded Spencer: his family, wives, mistresses,and friends. Nevertheless, Kenneth Pople has brought valuable newinsights to the work of Stanley Spencer, a gift for which art loverscan be grateful. ... Read more

Product Description
Stanley Spencer is recognized as a British artist of singular vision, but he was also a prolific and highly individual writer. In moments between painting, Spencer wrote thousands of letters. He filled notebooks, diaries, and scraps of paper, recording his daily thoughts and future plans in a distinctly Spencerian manner.This book brings together for the first time an extensive selection of Spencer's key letters, notes, and theoretical writings, including important sections of Spencer's autobigraphy which remained unfinished at the time of his death. Spencer always believed that his writings were as important as his paintings, and this volume offers a unique insight into Spencer as writer, thinker, and artist. ... Read more