Stanley Spencer sketchbook to go on show

  • Published
Stanley Spencer drawingImage source, The Estate of Stanley Spencer/Bridgeman Images
Image caption,

The sketchbook includes this drawing of the Pied Piper of "Hamlin"

An unpublished sketchbook containing the earliest known drawings by artist Stanley Spencer and a short story is to go on display in West Yorkshire.

The sketchbook, created around 1907 when Spencer was a teenager, includes drawings of the landscape around his home town of Cookham, Berkshire.

It also images of mermaids, witches and characters from fairy tales.

The previously unpublished book will feature in the Hepworth Wakefield's summer exhibition of Spencer's work.

Stanley Spencer: Of Angels and Dirt runs from 24 June to 15 October and coincides with the 125th anniversary of the English artist's birth.

Image source, AP
Image caption,

Stanley Spencer was born in Cookham in 1891 and died nearby in 1959

Eleanor Clayton, curator at the Hepworth Wakefield, said she had come across the sketchbook while researching the exhibition at the Spencer family home in London.

She said the "detailed depictions of local flora and fauna" and its insights into the young artist's "eccentric imagination" made for a "fascinating" exhibit.

Image source, The Estate of Stanley Spencer/Bridgeman Images
Image caption,

This drawing depicts 'The Flying Dutchman and his wife, Old Mother Goose'

Image source, The Estate of Stanley Spencer/Bridgeman Images
Image caption,

Other sketches include this drawing of the landscape near Spencer's home town in Berkshire

John Spencer, Stanley Spencer's grandson, said it was "a privilege" to work with the gallery on "this celebration of his life and art".

Media caption,

New details of Stanley Spencer's life are being discovered, says his grandson John Spencer

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