Stanley Spencer artwork saved for future generations

The Stanley Spencer Gallery has brought Patricia at Cockmarsh Hill home to the artist’s birthplace of Cookham.

A lifechanging moment

Famed for his experimental and controversial art, Stanley Spencer’s life was transformed in 1929 when he returned to his hometown and met Patricia Preece. While their relationship was ultimately doomed, Spencer quickly became obsessed with Patricia and married her in 1937, days after divorcing his wife, Hilda.

The subjects of this painting – both the place and the person – tell the story of a key moment in the artist’s life.
 

An important acquisition

The painting was at risk of being lost to a private collection. But funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund and the Friends of the Stanley Spencer Gallery has made sure this significant record of the artist’s life and work will remain on public display.

Dr Scot McKendrick FSA, Chair of Trustees at the Stanley Spencer Gallery said: “We are hugely grateful to the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Art Fund, and for the generous support of all the other funders, for making this important acquisition possible.

“Current and future generations of visitors will be able to enjoy and be inspired by this remarkable painting of Patricia Preece alongside other notable examples of Spencer's art and in his home village of Cookham.”