Gilbert Spencer RA, Activity at Tree Cottage No. 2

Activity at Tree Cottage No. 2, 1967

Gilbert Spencer RA (1892 - 1979)

RA Collection: Art

On free display in Collection Gallery

Between 1936 and 1970 Gilbert Spencer lived and worked at Tree Cottage in the town of Upper Basildon, Berkshire. Gilbert usually worked outdoors but in winter would work from his cottage windows or in what he called his ‘little Colt studio’ in the garden. In his memoirs, Spencer explained that when he entered the studio ‘I hated it so much that I knocked it about, and messed it up to get it more in sympathy with my feelings for painting in odd corners, or bedrooms, indoors.’ By the time he painted this self-portrait, however, the thought of leaving the cottage was ‘unthinkable’ to him.

Object details

Title
Activity at Tree Cottage No. 2
Artist/designer
Gilbert Spencer RA (1892 - 1979)
Date
1967
Object type
Painting
Copyright owner
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions

590 mm x 430 mm

Collection
Royal Academy of Arts
Object number
03/340
Acquisition
Purchased from Gilbert Spencer RA in 1967
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