Special display for treasured unfinished painting

The painting Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta is more than five metres long and kept at the Stanley Spencer Gallery

An unfinished painting by a leading twentieth century British artist will be displayed at eye level for the first time in over ten years as part of a new exhibition.

Sir Stanley Spencer is synonymous with Cookham in Berkshire, where he was born and lived and his most famous works are perhaps biblical scenes he set there.

His Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta, which he had worked on for seven years before his death in 1959, is displayed at the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham.

One of his largest and most ambitious works, it is more than five metres long and will be displayed at eye level rather than from its normally elevated position between 6 November and 29 March 2026.

The work was previously displayed at the Royal Academy's summer exhibition

Visitors to the Revealing Genius, Conserving Art: Stanley Spencer's Final Masterpiece exhibition will also be able to learn more about Spencer's technique.

Olivia Leake, a conservator in her final year of study at the Courtauld Institute of art, will work in the gallery and examine the canvas to reveal Spencer's creative process.

Amanda Bradley Petitgas, the gallery's curator, said: "At the end of Spencer's life, in Christ Preaching, he returned to his youthful evocations of religious visions in Cookham, creating a work that is both triumphant and nostalgic."