Sir Stanley Spencer, R.A.

Gifted by the Artist to Gerald and Nora Summers, early 1930s, and thence by descent
Sale, Christie's London, 21st November 1995, lot 170, where acquired by David Bowie

London, Tate, Stanley Spencer, 22nd March - 24th June 2001, cat. no.24, illustrated p.108, with tour to Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada and Ulster Museum, Belfast. 

Keith Bell, Stanley Spencer: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, Phaidon Press, London, 1992, cat. no.43, illustrated p.43.

The paper is fully laid down onto the backing board. There are some small nicks to the paint surface in places. There is a small hole in the surface of the board towards the right side of the lower horizontal edge. There is evidence of a previous frame along the right and lower edges. There is some light surface dirt across the work and some small specks of matter in places, most apparent in the upper right corner. Subject to the above, the work appears to be in very good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals an area of fluorescence in the white pigment in the upper left quadrant at the extreme left vertical edge, possibly in keeping with an old repaired tear. There are some further areas of fluorescence in the upper right quadrant, which may be in keeping with the artist's materials. There is an area of fluorescence to the centre of the white wall, which does not appear to be retouching. The work is presented in a simple wooden frame, held under glass. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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We are grateful to Carolyn Leder for her kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

Independent in both character and style, Stanley Spencer, while very much aware of current trends, was slightly wary of modern painting, and although loosely associated with the Neo Primitives early in his career, resisted falling in too closely with any particular grouping of his contemporaries. His inspirations varied widely, with drawings prior to the First World War betraying the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites and Tenniel’s illustrations, while in works such as John Donne Arriving in Heaven (1911, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), which was selected for Roger Fry’s Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition, we see evidence of the early Italian Trecento.  

Of particular importance to Spencer was the work of Giotto. He was certainly exposed to the Italian’s works in 1909 when he attended Roger Fry’s lectures, in which Fry espoused the merits of Giotto and Cezanne, and he was later gifted Ruskin’s text on Giotto by his friends Gwen and Jacques Raverat. His interest in the artist continued after the First World War, and in Carrying Mattresses the flattened shapes and weighty figures call to mind Giotto’s frescoed compositions. The reduction of detail, chalky colours, and blocks of pigment are particularly akin to the fresco technique, a mode of painting Spencer had in fact considered taking up during his rather difficult transition back into his working life as an artist. 

In Carrying Mattresses Spencer depicts a local community activity - figures preparing boats for their journey, ferrying cushions from a barn down to the river in the foreground. Spencer revels in the patterns created by the persistent rhythmic movement of the individuals, the wooden timbers of the barn, the rungs of the ladder and the slats for the boats. In one of his notebooks Spencer referred to the present work as Slessers Going to the River, suggesting that it may depict an event that Spencer witnessed while living with his friends Henry and Lady Slesser at their home near Cookham. Spencer first met the Slessers in November 1919, when he was invited to tea along with his brother Gilbert and his patrons, Mr and Mrs Louis Behrend. In April 1920 Spencer accepted an invitation to stay with the Slessers and they provided him with a room overlooking the Thames. He painted twenty pictures in the year he stayed there, most notably Christ Carrying the Cross (Tate, London) and The Last Supper (Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham). In the 1930s Spencer gifted Carrying Mattresses to his friends Gerald and Nora Summers, who were his contemporaries at the Slade and who he often visited in Dorset with Henry Lamb.