Sir Stanley Spencer R.A. (British, 1891-1959)
Resurrection of Christ

titled 'Resurrection of Christ' (lower left); dated 'Feb 1940' (lower right); inscribed 'Christ rising from the Tomb 1954' (lower edge)
pencil

Unframed: 22 x 17 cm. (8 5/8 x 6 3/4 in.)

Please note there is a further drawing verso. This work is a scale drawing for Sir Stanley Spencer's Christ Arising from the Tomb (1954).

With Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd, London
Michael C. Stewart
With The Fine Art Society, London, March 1979
With The Piccadilly Gallery, Ltd, 6 October 2006, where purchased by
Martin Green, thence by descent

Exhibited:
Sussex, Worthing Art Gallery, Sir Stanley Spencer R.A., 9 Sep-7 Oct 1961, cat.no.38

Literature:
Exhibition Catalogue, Worthing Art Gallery, Sir Stanley Spencer R.A., 9 Sep-7 Oct 1961, cat.no.38 (as Scale drawing for "Christ arising from the tomb")
Keith Bell, Stanley Spencer, A Complete Catalogue of Paintings, Phaidon, London, 1992, p.504

We are grateful to Carolyn Leder for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

In this splendid drawing Christ rises triumphantly from his tomb surrounded by sleeping soldiers who had been set to guard it. The stone which had sealed the entrance to the tomb is seen at the top of the drawing. The composition and figures are reminiscent of Renaissance artists such as Uccello and Piero della Francesca, who had exerted a seminal influence on the development of Spencer’s style.

Dated by the artist ‘Feb 1940’, the drawing was made in the year he was commissioned to record the war effort by the War Artists Advisory Committee which led to his major Shipbuilding on the Clyde series (Imperial War Museum).

Fourteen years after the drawing, and a slightly smaller drawing of similar date, Spencer returned to the theme. He painted Christ Rising from the Tomb 1954 (private collection), the upper section of which follows this drawing with great fidelity. He added a lower section to the picture, in the manner of a predella below a Renaissance altarpiece. The work is one of several pictures of New Testament scenes painted towards the end of his life.

We are grateful to Carolyn Leder for her assistance in compiling this entry.