Wednesday, 20 April 2011

Two Spencer Gores

This year's Wimbledon championship will be the 125th - a fact that will no doubt excite much brouhaha. It was back in 1877 that a fine all-round sportsman called Spencer Gore won the first All England Lawn Tennis Championship (lawn tennis, I should explain, is the new-fangled term for Sphairistike). This was a Gentlemen's Singles competition, and it was a leisurely affair, suspended at the weekend for the Eton-Harrow cricket match at Lord's (Gore was a Harrow boy), and the final was delayed for four days by inclement weather. In the end, Gore walked off with the 12 guinea prize money and a silver cup - a quite sufficient emolument, I'd say (even minus the guinea entry fee). Spencer Gore's other great achievement in life was to father the painter of the same name, a friend of Sickert's and founder member of the Camden Town Group. Sadly, this Spencer Gore died at the age of 35, of pneumonia, after being caught in a storm while out painting. The picture above is one of his.
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8 comments:

  1. The Spine20 April 2011 at 14:57

    Never heard of him, though to my eternal shame, I'd never heard of Sickert until this week when I stood for half-an-hour looking at his 'Jack the Ripper', which I imagine is about as far from this painting as it's possible to get.

    Can't say I like this painting... Feels like two paintings stuck jarringly together about the middle, which I suppose might be the point.

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  2. Barbara Carlson20 April 2011 at 20:52

    Agreed.

    Here's one that is a little better.

    http://www.hh-h.com/images/1253.jpg

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  3. Nige21 April 2011 at 10:10

    Yes that's better indeed -
    but really, whichever way you cut it, English painting of that period breaks down into Sickert and the rest. I don't much like Spencer Gore's palette...

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  4. Nige21 April 2011 at 11:05

    We've all been there. You've set up an All England Lawn Tennis Championship but you haven't got a champion. Enter Spencer Gore.

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  5. The Spine21 April 2011 at 11:40

    I know so very little of this but that struck me going around a gallery with quite a few of Sickert's paintings. I'd find myself stopping in front of paintings before I realised they were by Sickert.

    There was another artist, William Roberts, who came close. I couldn't stop looking at his wife.

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  6. Barbara Carlson21 April 2011 at 13:18

    Well, there was (is?) Stanhope Alexander Forbes. He could wield a pretty mean brush... (I've always felt Sickert was trying too hard).

    http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://articlesandtexticles.co.uk/imgs/0612/forbes06x.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.articlesandtexticles.co.uk/2006/12/30/painters-i-should-have-known-about-008-stanhope-forbes/&usg=__IPXVp3TacuP6Ue2opPSBRBIMi5w=&h=835&w=1157&sz=92&hl=en&start=4&sig2=JJtghxbDxCFyXUNepyyAZA&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=t85UGgRSTVer0M:&tbnh=108&tbnw=150&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dstanhope%2Balexander%2Bforbes%2Bgallery%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Den%26tbs%3Disz:l%26tbm%3Disch&ei=ER-wTY35HYrg0QHoirH9CA

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  7. Barbara Carlson21 April 2011 at 14:50

    Looking for a witty British blog to follow: Enter you and your hilarious followers. Thanks Nige.

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  8. Nige21 April 2011 at 15:24

    Welcome aboard, Barbara - and yes Stanehope Forbes a v accopmlished painter.

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