If there’s one county with which Stanley Spencer is most closely associated, it’s Berkshire: he was born and spent most of his life in Cookham, where the Stanley Spencer Gallery now resides. But Suffolk also played a major part in his life: in the early 1920s he, his fiancée Hilda Carline and her brother Richard spent a great deal of time in the town of Wangford, where Hilda and Spencer painted a series of verdant landscapes. Spencer returned to Suffolk in the 1930s, by now twice divorced, and began to paint some very different works – including his Beatitudes of Love series, which captured couples or groups, rendered cartoonishly, in the middle of sexually charged interactions. This exhibition at Gainsborough’s House reveals how Suffolk nourished Spencer – first in the flush of love, and later when he sought succour amid emotional turmoil (15 November–22 March 2026).
Find out more from the Gainsborough’s House website.
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