Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham and the Gardens at Cliveden

REPORT by one of our Members

As we waited for our coach, in the early morning sun, the sky an endless blue, I felt excited to be going on a coach trip to somewhere new. As someone who knew very little about Stanley Spencer beyond being a war artist and the painter of the controversial “Resurrection”, the trip to the Stanley Spencer gallery and village of Cookham was a revelation.  

After a reviving coffee in Cookham, we visited the beautiful Stanley Spencer Gallery, a former Wesleyan chapel where Stanley Spencer would have worshipped. The gallery’s summer exhibition:  “That Marvelous Atmosphere” Stanley Spencer and Cookham Regatta included his vast, unfinished masterpiece; “Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta”.

Thanks to Amy Lim's expert, illuminating talk, we were able to enter the world of Stanley Spencer and the Edwardian Cookham Regatta and experience the joy and magic such an event evoked in its time. Cookham Regatta attracted both “toffs” and Cookham villagers and it was this mixture of classes that so fascinated Stanley. He included friends and villagers in this painting, as in much of his work. This, combined with his visionary imagination, seeing the spiritual in everyday life and his childhood steeped in nightly bible readings, gave him the idea of Christ Preaching in Cookham.  

 Furthermore, the unfinished work gave me a rare insight into his working methods of “squaring up” from smaller studies, something, as an emerging artist, I have struggled with! I was fascinated by his attention to detail and love of rendering texture.   Amy had many stories to tell of the villagers in the painting, such as of the owner of the Ferry Inn charging people a shilling to watch the Regatta from his garden and you see him in the painting, hands in his pocket calculating how much money he could make! 

The exhibition has other scenes of Cookham: View from Cookham Bridge as well as several portraits he did during the fifties towards the end of his life as his fame and reputation grew. These portraits took him away from finishing Christ Preaching in Cookham.  After his diagnosis of cancer Spencer was filled with a new sense of energy to complete the work that was most important to him. "I cannot tempt fate any longer, all this putting off this and that I love and long to paint” 

We then had an excellent guided tour of Cookham, helpfully provided with laminated photos of his paintings and Victorian street scenes showing Cookham had changed very little from Spencer’s time except for a few new shop fronts and restaurants. I felt I was seeing through Stanley’s eyes: the neighbours, village myths, farms, all lovingly recreated in his paintings.  The sadness of losing his brother Sydney in the Great War was recorded in a painting of Study for the Month of April, Clipping Privet hedge 1926, 8 years after Sydney was killed, Stanley draws a memory, Sydney clipping the hedge at their home Fernlea. We saw Sidney’s death remembered, his name inscribed at the War Memorial. At last, I understood Resurrection: so many of the friends he lost during the Great War resurrected in his painting. 

Our day continued at Cliveden, a short drive away, a stunning National Trust Property, home of the Astors. By coincidence Sotheby’s were holding a vintage car auction that day which just added to the glamour of the place. After leaving the formal gardens with its parched golden grass and far-reaching views, descending a steep path, we came across the beautiful Tortoise Fountain and dipped our toes in its cool waters. Two National Trust volunteers who came to clear weed from the fountain told us Cliveden was the place the Profumo affair blossomed and that we could see a secret hideaway, Spring Cottage down by the River Thames. It was a glorious section of the river, and I felt blessed to be there as we ate our ice creams at the shady riverbank. 

 A glorious day, one I shall never forget!