Watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Contemporary Art Society
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gilbert-spencer-1976" aria-label="More by Gilbert Spencer" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Gilbert Spencer</a>
Beginning an Event in History Tolpuddle Martyrs
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1944
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
agricultural
agriculture and fishing
agriculture, gardening & fishing
animals: birds
animals: mammals
architecture
arm / arms raised
barn
cart
carter
chicken
clothing and personal items
crook
Dorset
England
England, South West
England, Southern
farmland
gesticulating
group
groups
hat
herdsman / herdswoman
herdsman / herdswoman, shepherd / shepherdess
hill
history
horse
industrial society
landscape
man
natural phenomena
objects
people
places
ploughing
politics and society
protests and unrest: Tolpuddle Martyrs, c.1834
riding
shadow
smock
social comment
society
sunshine
Tolpuddle
transport: land
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
unemployment
weather
whip
wooded
work and occupations
<p>This large watercolour is a design for a mural. It reflects the political mood in Britain before the Second World War. Opinions were polarised between support for the left and the right, and Gilbert Spencer sought a landscape subject that would show his commitment.</p><p>The Tolpuddle Martyrs of 1834 were a popular example of trade union history. They were farm labourers from Tolpuddle in Dorset who were prosecuted for combining together to insist on an increase in their pay. Gilbert Spencer shows his characteristic farming subject in the light of historic social unrest. The mural was never painted.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper unique watercolour
10 November 2003 – 5 July 2004
2004-07-05
10 November 2003
2003-11-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-11-10
Stanley Spencer
Collection based display
5 May 2022 – 4 September 2022
2022-09-04
5 May 2022 – 4 September 2022
2022-09-04
2022-05-05
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
1 October 2022 – 22 January 2023
2023-01-22
2022-10-01
Mead Gallery (Coventry, UK)
http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk
2022-05-05
Radical Landscapes
Exhibition
7 October 2022 – 18 February 2024
2024-02-18
7 October 2022 – 18 December 2022
2022-12-18
2022-10-07
Mead Gallery (Coventry, UK)
http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk
6 February 2023 – 30 April 2023
2023-04-30
2023-02-06
Art Explora (Liverpool, UK)
2022-10-07
Radical Landscapes
Loan-out
The Beginning of an Event in History: The Tolpuddle Martyrs
support: 559 × 800 mm
frame: 805 × 1035 × 25 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999975" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Contemporary Art Society</a> 1944
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text0">This large <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> is a design for a mural. It      reflects the political mood in </span><span class="text12">Britain before      the Second World War. </span><span class="text13">Opinions were polarised      between support</span><span class="text0"> for the left and the right, and      Gilbert Spencer sought a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> subject  </span><span class="text12">that      would show his commitment.</span><span class="text0">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="para10">
<span class="text0">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text0">The Tolpuddle Martyrs of 1834 were a popular example of      trade union history. </span><span class="text13">They were farm labourers      from Tolpuddle </span><span class="text12">in Dorset who were prosecuted      for combining together to insist on an </span><span class="text13">increase      in their pay.  Gilbert Spencer shows his characteristic farming      subject  in the light of historic social unrest. The</span><span class="text0"> mural was never painted.  </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-09-09T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05550</b> THE BEGINNING OF AN EVENT IN HISTORY: THE TOLPUDDLE MARTYRS <i>c.</i> 1937</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Not inscribed.
<br/>Watercolour (squared for painting), 22×31 1/2 (56×80); enlarged on left side by strip 2 3/8 (6) wide.
<br/>Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1944.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by the C.A.S. from the Leicester Galleries May 1943, although the painting is not listed in the printed catalogue of the exhibition of that date.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Reading, June–July 1964 (131).</p>
<p>The ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs’ were six labourers from Tolpuddle, near Dorchester, who had sought to combine together to secure better wages. They were prosecuted for administering unlawful oaths and in March 1834 sentenced to transportation for seven years. Public opinion was outraged by this savage punishment and a monster petition was presented to Parliament, as a result of which the men were pardoned in 1836 and brought home.</p>
<p>This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a>, done about 1937, was the original finished <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> sketch for what the artist had intended to be a mural. ‘The subject’, he wrote (letter of 20 April 1958), ‘was one that appealed to me strongly. It was a secular event with a strong flavour of the sort of thing that would replace for me, subject matter which in the circumstances I did not regard as any longer suitable.... It arose simply from an account I read about the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The reason for my calling it “The Beginnings” is intended to explain that although the three figures could be regarded as the martyrs, at the moment I have chosen they were not; they had put on their smocks and are carrying their emblems - the whip (Carter) crook and tuft of wool (Shepherd) and corn in hat (Ploughman) and are remonstrating with their employer before going to the hirings. The characters are intended to indicate (1) the reasoning man, Lovelace with his whip (2) the accuser, the shepherd and (3) the religious fanatical type pointing skywards and at the same time indicating the full barn. In my efforts to knit it together I extended the idea to weave in contemporary farm life.’</p>
<p>After the war had broken out the artist gave up his ideas of a mural and in 1943 painted instead a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>, 28×36 in., at Professor de Selincourt's home, Grasmere. This picture was then shown at the Royal <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a>, 1956 (122), and reproduced in that year's <i>Royal Academy Illustrated</i>, p.76. A comparison between this and the Tate drawing shows only a few minor variations other than the squarer format of the oil <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>; the man on the right carrying bucket and watering-can has been omitted, the pose of the figure of the man with the horse and cart has been altered, and a house or barn occupies the top right-hand corner instead of a herd of cattle. Chickens have been introduced into the foreground, while the pose of the ploughman now shows him with upraised left arm.</p>
<p>A <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> drawing of this subject belongs to Lord Methuen, and a tracing and other fragments remain in the possession of the artist.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults agricultural agriculture and fishing agriculture, gardening & fishing animals: birds animals: mammals architecture arm / arms raised barn cart carter chicken clothing and personal items crook Dorset England England, Southern England, South West farmland gesticulating group groups hat herdsman / herdswoman herdsman / herdswoman, shepherd / shepherdess hill history horse industrial society landscape man natural phenomena objects people places ploughing politics and society protests and unrest: Tolpuddle Martyrs, c.1834 riding shadow smock social comment society sunshine Tolpuddle transport: land UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions unemployment weather whip wooded work and occupations