Spencer Gore
(England 26 May 1878–27 Mar 1914)
- Title
- The Icknield Way
- Year
- 1912
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
-
63.4 x 76.2cm stretcher; 83.9 x 96.6 x 4.8cm frame
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1962
- Accession number
- OB2.1962
- Location
- Modern gallery
- Further information
Spencer Gore's 'The Icknield Way' is a landscape of preternatural luminosity and compaction, which bears the stylistic imprint of Cezanne inflected by the more expressive accents of van Gogh and Gauguin. Lozenge-like simplifications of natural forms, particularly visible in the trees and clouds, unify the composition. The ensuing dynamic is both agitated and stable. Gore contrives to hold fragmentation at bay without loss of pictorial energy. He animates the work even further by exaggerating colour to a kaleidoscopic degree. This is topography deeply experienced rather than superficially observed. It is the artist's masterpiece .Gore was a founder member of the Camden Town Group, an alliance of younger artists around Walter Sickert. Popular and promising, Gore's premature death from influenza robbed the group of a leading light. Paintings of this kind exerted a considerable influence on the young Sydney painter Grace Cossington Smith, who may have seen them in London as early as 1912.
AGNSW Handbook, 1999.
- Provenance (2)
-
The Redfern Gallery (England, estab. 1923), pre 27 Apr 1962, London/England, Purchased by the AGNSW from the Redfern Gallery 1962. Purchased from the exhibition 'Spencer Gore 1878-1914, Frederick Gore 1913-' 1962, 6 February - 3 March 1962.
Mrs Spencer Gore (England), pre 1962, London/England
- Bibliography (19)
-
Ted Gott (Australia) (Author), Laurie Benson (Australia) (Author), Sophie Matthiesson (Australia) (Author), Modern Britain 1900-1960, Melbourne, 2007, 78 (colour illus.), 79, 80 (colour illus.). illustration on pg.78 is a detail
David Peters Corbett (Editor), Ysanne Holt (Editor), Fiona Russell (Editor), The Geographies of Englishness: Landscape and the National Past 1880-1940, 2002, 104, 105 (illus.). plate 42
Wendy Baron (England) (Author), Perfect Moderns: A history of the Camden Town Group, England, 2000, 55, 59, 132, 133 (colour illus.), 177. plate no. 23
Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, Domain, 1999, 54 (colour illus.).
Peter Tomory (United Kingdom) (Author), Anne Kirker (New Zealand; Australia, b.1947) (Author), British painting 1800-1990 in Australian and New Zealand public collections, Sydney, 1997, cover (colour illus.), 19 (colour illus.), 90. cat.no. 784
Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections, Sydney, 1994, 146, 147 (colour illus.).
Annabel Davie (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales Handbook, Domain, 1988, 55 (colour illus.).
Renée Free (Australia) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales catalogue of British paintings, Sydney, 1987, 72 (illus.), 73.
Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Editor), Jan Meek (Australia) (Editor), Portrait of a Gallery, Sydney, 1984, 94 (colour illus.).
Editor Unknown (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales picturebook, Domain, 1972, 42 (colour illus.).
'The Camden Town Group (2): Opposition and Composition' by Quentin Bell, pg. 68-85, Motif 11 Winter 1963-1964, Winter 1963-1964, 72, 79 (illus.).
Wendy Baron (England) (Author), The Camden Town Group, London, Unknown, 51 (colour illus.), 198. cat.no. 115
'Acquisitions for 1962' pg. 139-147, Art Gallery of New South Wales Quarterly (vol. 4, no. 3) Apr 1963, Apr 1963, 142 (illus.).
1962 Acquisitions 1962, 1962. cat.no. 41
The Redfern Gallery (England, estab. 1923) (Author), Spencer Gore 1878-1914, Frederick Gore 1913-, 1962. cat. no. 62
'Spencer Gore and Stanley Spencer' by Graham Hughes, Arts review [vol. 7, no. 21] 12 Nov 1955, 12 Nov 1955, 2.
Arts Council of Great Britain (England), Spencer Frederick Gore, 1878-1914, 1955. cat.no. 35
Southampton Art Gallery (England), The Camden Town Group: Festival of Britain exhibition by arrangement with the Arts Council of Great Britain 1951, 1951. cat.no. 63
Alpine Club Gallery (England), Grafton Group exhibition, London, 1913. cat.no. 1
- Exhibition history (6)
-
Grafton Group, Alpine Club Gallery, 15 Mar 1913–31 Mar 1913.
The Camden Town Group, Southampton Art Gallery, 16 Jun 1951–29 Jul 1951.
Spencer Frederick Gore, 1878-1914, Arts Council Gallery, London, 29 Oct 1955–03 Dec 1955.
Spencer Gore 1878-1914, Frederick Gore 1913-, The Redfern Gallery, 06 Feb 1962–03 Mar 1962.
Acquisitions 1962, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 10 Apr 1963–12 May 1963.
Modern Britain 1900-1960, NGV: International, 15 Nov 2007–24 Feb 2008.
