| Gilbert Spencer | |
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A 1926 photo of Gilbert Spencer by Lady Ottoline Morrell |
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| Birth name | Gilbert Spencer |
| Born | 4 August 1892 Cookham U.K. |
| Died | 14 January 1972 (aged 79) Cliveden, Buckinghamshire U.K. |
| Nationality | British |
| Field | Painting |
| Training | Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, the Royal College of Art and The Slade |
| Works | Many Landscape Views |
| Awards | R.A. |
Gilbert Spencer R.A. (born 4 August 1892 at Cookham, Berkshire, UK - died 14 January 1979) was a British painter of landscapes, portraits figure compositions and mural decorations. He worked in oils and watercolor. He was the younger brother of the painter Sir Stanley Spencer.
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Born at Cookham on 4 August 1892, thirteen months after his more famous brother Stanley, Gilbert Spencer studied at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, the Royal College of Art (wood carving) 1911–12 and the Slade School of Fine Art (1913–15).
During the First World War, Gilbert served with the R.A.M.C. initially at the Beaufort Military Hospital in Bristol (with his brother Stanley, for a short while) in Thessalonice and the Eastern Mediterranean 1915–19.[1] He returned to his studies at The Slade after the war (1919–20).[2]
Gilbert's father, William Spencer, was a music teacher. His older brother, Sir Stanley Spencer (1891–1959), became a famous artist. Gilbert married Margaret Ursula Bradshaw (1898–1959) on 31 December 1930 at Holy Trinity church, Prince Consort Road, London. The artist John Nash (brother of Paul Nash) was his best man. They had their honeymoon at Winsford. Gilbert lived at Tree Cottage, Upper Basildon, Berkshire from 1936-70.
Spencer painted portraits, genre scenes and murals but was primarily a landscape painter, focusing his attention on vistas of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Dorset and the Lake District.
He became a member of the N.E.A.C. in 1919 and in 1923 held his first solo exhibition at the Goupil Gallery.
From 1934-6 he created a series of murals depicting the Foundation Legend of Balliol College for Holywell Manor, Oxford.
During the Second World War he served as an official war artist (1940–1943).
He was elected an Associate Royal Academician (A.R.A) in 1950 and a full member in 196?.[3] The artist was widely exhibited during his lifetime and examples of his work are held in major public and private collections, including the Tate Gallery and the Royal Academy.
From 1932 to 1948 Gilbert Spencer was Professor of Painting at the Royal College of Art in London. He was also Head of the Department of Painting at Glasgow School of Art 1948–50 and, from 1950 to 1957, was Head of Painting at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts.
Gilbert published a posthumous biography of his brother, Stanley Spencer 1961, and his autobiography Memoirs of a Painter (1974).