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Sir Stanley Spencer  1891-1959

Sir Stanley Spencer The Resurrection, Cookham 1924-7
© Tate
The Resurrection, Cookham  1924-7

Oil on canvas
support: 2743 x 5486 mm
painting

Presented by Lord Duveen 1927

N04239

Spencer believed that the divine rested in all creation. He saw his home town of Cookham as a paradise in which everything is invested with mystical significance. The local churchyard here becomes the setting for the resurrection of the dead. Christ is enthroned in the church porch, cradling three babies, with God the Father standing behind. Spencer himself appears near the centre, naked, leaning against a grave stone; his fiancée Hilda lies sleeping in a bed of ivy. At the top left, risen souls are transported to Heaven in the pleasure steamers that then ploughed the Thames.

 (From the display caption July 2007)