The Balcony, 6 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, 1928
Framed (ref: 10984)
Signed and dated, 1928
Oil on canvas
Signed and dated, 1928
Oil on canvas
Provenance: Percy Julius Spencer, thence by family descent; Fine Art Society, London.
Exhibited:Glasgow, Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, 1949;Pittsburg, Carnegie Institute, Great Britain, November 1955, cat. no.175, where lent by Percy Julius Spencer;Reading, Reading Museum & Art Gallery, The Retrospective Exhibition of the work of Gilbert Spencer, 10th June - 15th July 1964, where lent by Mrs. H. P. Spencer; London, Fine Art Society, Unity Spencer, 24th March - 24th April 2015.
The Balcony depicts 6 Downshire Hill in Hampstead, near the home of the Carline family at 47 Downshire Hill, with whom the Spencer brothers socialised a great deal. Gilbert Spencer describes this period in his later writings: On summer evenings we had our meals on the terrace in the garden, which had a strong Continental feeling about it. Mrs Carline’s gardening was again of a highly individual kind. She sowed seeds as though she were feeding the birds. She strewed the garden with Corots, and even an occasional Cezanne would emerge. We would move about among them playing a particularly unorthodox form of croquet.'
We are grateful to Carolyn Leder for her kind assistance
