Sir Stanley Spencer R.A.

Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, where acquired by Sir Hugh Walpole in 1937
The Leicester Galleries, London, where acquired by Wilfrid A. Evill July 1945 for £100.0.0, by whom bequeathed to Honor Frost in 1963

London, The Leicester Galleries, The Art Collection of the Late Sir Hugh Walpole CBE, Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Part 2, 16th May - 9th June 1945, cat. no.135 (as Sunflower Worshipper);
London, The Home of Wilfrid A. Evill, Contemporary Art Society, Catalogue of Part of a Collection of Oil Paintings, Water Colours, Drawings and Sculpture Belonging to W. A. Evill, Esq., December 1947 - February 1948, cat. no.7 (as The Sun-flower Worshippers);
Hampstead, The Home of Wilfrid A. Evill, Contemporary Art Society, Catalogue of the Greater Portion of a Collection of Modern English Paintings, Water Colours, Drawings and Sculpture Belonging to W. A. Evill, March 1955, cat. no.1 (as Sun Flower Worshippers);
London, The Home of Wilfrid A. Evill, Contemporary Art Society, Pictures, Drawings, Water Colours and Sculpture, April - May 1961, (part III- section 3) cat. no.1 (as The Sun Worshippers);
Brighton, Brighton Art Gallery, The Wilfrid Evill Memorial Exhibition, June - August 1965, cat. no.211 (as The Sunflower Worshippers);
London, Royal Academy, Stanley Spencer RA, 20th September - 14th December 1980, cat. no.187, illustrated p.165.

Elizabeth Rothenstein, Stanley Spencer, Phaidon Press, Oxford and London, 1945, illustrated pl.59;
Maurice Collis, Stanley Spencer, Harvill Press, London, 1962, p.140 (as Sunflowers and Dog Worship);
Gilbert Spencer, Stanley Spencer, Victor Gollancz, London, 1961, p.182; 
Patricia Preece (Lady Spencer), Sunday Mirror, 'Our Marriage Crashed on Honeymoon,' 24th January 1971, p.11 (as Dog and Sunflower Worship);
Louise Collis, A Private View of Stanley Spencer, Heinemann, London, 1972, p.111 (as Dog and Sunflower Worship);
Stanley Spencer, documentary directed by David Rowan, Arbor Films/Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979;
Marina Vaizey, The Sunday Times, 'Stanley Spencer: The Making of a Visionary,' 21st September 1980, p.41;
Duncan Robinson, Stanley Spencer, Phaidon Press, London, 1990, p.76, illustrated pl.62;
Kenneth Pople, Stanley Spencer: A Biography, Collins, London, 1991, p.236;
Keith Bell, Stanley Spencer: A Complete Catalogue of Paintings, London, Phaidon, 1992, cat. no.245, illustrated p.145;
The British Council and the Hirshhorn Museum, Stanley Spencer An English Vision, (exh. cat.) Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1997, illustrated p.37, fig.23;
Adrian Glew (ed.), Stanley Spencer: Letters and Writings, Tate Publishing Ltd, London, 2001, p.184 (reference in a letter dated 14th December 1937);
Kitty Hauser, Stanley Spencer, Tate Publishing Ltd., London, 2001, p.50, illustrated pl.36.

The colours are slightly less yellow and fresher than the printed catalogue illustration. The following condition report has been prepared by Hamish Dewar, Fine Art Conservation, 13 & 14 Mason's Yard, Duke Street, St James's, London, SW1Y 6BU: UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structure The canvas is unlined on the original keyed wooden stretcher and secured with tacks on the reverse of the stretcher bars. This is ensuring an even and stable structural support. There is one vertical cross- bar. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer and no retouchings are visible under ultraviolet light. There is one very small pin hole on a sunflower leaf between the man and the woman in the centre of the composition. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in an excellent and stable condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The following work has been requested by Kunsthal Rotterdam to be included in their forthcoming exhibition, Stanley Spencer, from 17^th September 2011 to 15^th January 2012.

This important but complex painting is perhaps one of the most extreme manifestations of Spencer's notions in the mid 1930s that involved the universal harmony of mankind and the world around him. Like The Village Lovers (lot 18) or other major treatments of the subject in this period such as Adoration of Old Men (fig. 1, Leicestershire Museums and Art Galleries) or A Village in Heaven (Manchester City Art Gallery), this painting envisages a heaven-like state of all-embracing love.

Whilst most of the paintings on this theme look at the relationships of humankind, in the present work Spencer extends this to the wider world of creation. Spencer's letters frequently elucidate the minutiae of the imagery, and we find that here the two central figures, a husband and wife who have achieved this mystical state of joy, are enclosed within their garden walls, embracing and being embraced by the huge sunflowers. With typical idiosyncratic detail we note that the husband even holds his wife's handbag to make this easier. The onlookers beyond the garden wall are awaiting their exposure to this joy, tentatively watching the central tableau, indeed some even tentatively attempt to engage with the dogs within this very local hortus inclusus. Dogs frequently appear in Spencer's paintings and often carry an implication of already inhabiting the state of untrammelled freedom which mankind is seeking, and indeed here the dogs within the enclosure exhibit the entirely unbothered natural behaviour of their kind. To the right, the artist himself involves himself in this bridging of worlds and embraces an enthusiastic Dalmatian.

As in Workmen in the House (lot 7), the success of Sunflower and Dog Worship comes from Spencer's ability to evoke both the current state and the previous one from which we have moved. In order to do this, he has rendered the actuality of the scene with an amazing truthfulness, so that we immediately recognise from our own experience the roughness of the capstones of the brick garden wall, slightly warmed by the sun, understand the spring of the husband's stiff shirt collar which has popped open in the joy of the moment, and empathise with the deep and hearty sniff of the perfume of the sunflower that his wife is taking. Even amongst the dogs, we are immediately familiar with the perfunctory rear-sniffing and general interaction with their surroundings. Entirely unabashed by, and presumably unaware of, the great transport in which the husband and wife are engaged, the dogs are already happily at this state of oneness with their world.  

Although Spencer's more imaginative paintings were rather less easy sellers when new than his more orthodox landscape and still-life work, there were a small band of collectors and the occasional enlightened museum who were prepared to purchase them. Although Evill was one of these, for Sunflowers and Dog Worship he appears to have been beaten to it by another significant collector, Sir Hugh Walpole, who, according to a letter from Spencer to Mary Behrend, was clearly very quick off the mark: '...I have...just finished the Sunflower and dog picture...it made a very attractive picture...Tooth...sold it within two hours...' (the artist to Mary Behrend, 14^th December 1937, 882.45). In the notes to the 1965 memorial exhibition of his collection, some of Evill's notes and recollections were included. For this painting he had noted:

It is an illustration of Stanley Spencer's view at this time that all inhibitions are a bar to happiness and that animals, flowers and human beings all ought to love another. Inside the wall are those who have attained to felicity by the acceptance of this doctrine and outside are those who are still unconverted. Stanley Spencer said to me: 'Look at that Aberdeen dog. I have made him look very unhappy.' (Note by W.A.E. to cat.no.211, Brighton 1965)