Graphite, ink and watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-stanley-spencer-1977" aria-label="More by Sir Stanley Spencer" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Stanley Spencer</a>
Man Goeth to his Long Home
Purchased 1945
actions: postures and motions
adults
architecture
Berkshire
Bible: Old Testament
birth to death
birth to death
Cookham - non-specific
Ecclesiastes 12
England
England, South East
England, Southern
field
grave
landscape
life, everlasting - evergreen tree
man
mortality
people
places
religion and belief
society
symbols and personifications
townscapes / man-made features
tree
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
walking
<p>As a student, Spencer was a member of the Slade Sketch Club. Members were set subjects to draw, often from the Bible or classical mythology. The prompt for this drawing was from the biblical book of Ecclesiates, ‘Man Goeth to his long Home’. The text is often used in funeral services. ‘Long home’ refers to the body’s eternal rest in the grave, represented by the chained-off area in this drawing. The significance of the figure is ambiguous. He could be a traveller, a man risen from the dead, or even death personified.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2020</em></p>
paper unique graphite ink watercolour
19 June 2002 – 6 October 2002
2002-10-06
19 June 2002 – 6 October 2002
2002-10-06
2002-06-19
Abbot Hall Art Gallery (Kendal, UK)
http://www.abbothall.org.uk
2002-06-19
Spencer
Tate partnerships & programmes
21 September 2020 – 26 September 2021
2021-09-26
21 September 2020 – 26 September 2021
2021-09-26
2020-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2020-09-21
Stanley Spencer
Collection based display
‘Man Goeth to his Long Home’
support: 432 × 318 mm
Purchased 1945
<p>From 1908 to 1912 Spencer attended the Slade School of Fine Art, travelling by train each day from his family home in Cookham village to London. <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> was almost the exclusive focus of studies at the Slade where students were encouraged to admire the high principles and techniques of the Old Masters. The Slade Sketch Club, of which Spencer was a member, was often set subjects to draw taken from the Bible or Classical myth. The assigned subject for <i>Man Goeth to his long Home</i> was to illustrate <i>Ecclesiastes</i> 12:5, in which a young man is urged to remember his creator 

</p><p>when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goeth to his long home; and the mourners go about in the streets.

</p><p>A text often used in funeral services, 'long home' refers to the body's eternal rest in the grave. The chained-off area in the drawing represents a grave. The significance of the figure is ambiguous; he could be a traveller, a man risen from the dead or, perhaps, even death personified, considering his next destination. Spencer sought not to visualise literally the whole verse but, instead, produced an image of intense contemplation. <i>Ecclesiastes</i> 12 is laden with symbols and suggests the world around man should remind him of his creator and of his inevitable mortality. These were sentiments which echoed part of Spencer's own reverence for nature.

</p><p>The figure in the drawing, long-haired and robed, appears Christ-like, perhaps suggesting the mortal path Jesus had to tread. The trees in the distance are bare-leafed but the exuberant, lush tree occupying much of the picture space is evergreen, an ancient emblem of eternal life in both pagan and Christian tradition, as Spencer was aware from reading the anthropological examination of syncretic myth in James Frazer's <i>The Golden Bough</i> (1890-1915). Religion was an active force in Spencer's family life as he grew up and he had a thorough knowledge of the Bible, gained from his father's recitations. He was also encouraged to read it by his mother who issued him with a missionary card as a child to record his textual progress.

</p><p>Spencer's early visionary pictures use Cookham as the setting for extraordinary religious events or moments of spiritual revelation. For Spencer, Cookham was a kind of heaven on earth, in which the everyday coexisted with the spiritual and was a cipher for it. Although he has added the imaginary element of the grave, in <i>Man Goeth to his Long Home</i>, Spencer shows the view from the corner of Carter's shed in Cookham, the same vista which he used in <i>Study for 'Joachim and the Shepherds'</i> (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/spencer-study-for-joachim-among-the-shepherds-t00048" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T00048</span></a>).

</p><p>Robert Upstone<br/>August 2001

</p><p><b>Further reading</b>:<br/>Timothy Hyman and Patrick Wright (eds.), <i>Stanley Spencer</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain 2001, cat.no.3, reproduced in colour <br/><i>Stanley Spencer: A Sort of Heaven</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Liverpool 1992, p.26, reproduced in colour<br/><i>Stanley Spencer RA</i>, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1980, cat.no.7, reproduced</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>As a student, Spencer was a member of the Slade Sketch Club. Members were set subjects to draw, often from the Bible or classical mythology. The prompt for this drawing was from the biblical book of Ecclesiates, ‘Man Goeth to his long Home’. The text is often used in funeral services. ‘Long home’ refers to the body’s eternal rest in the grave, represented by the chained-off area in this drawing. The significance of the figure is ambiguous. He could be a traveller, a man risen from the dead, or even death personified.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-10-22T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05608</b> ‘MAN GOETH TO HIS LONG HOME’ 1911</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Not inscribed.
<br/>Pencil, pen and wash, 17×12 1/2 (43×31·75).
<br/>Purchased from Arthur Tooth &amp; Sons (Knapping Fund) 1945.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Leicester Galleries, November 1942 (4), with the quotation from Ecclesiastes referred to below.</p>
<p>This was a Slade Sketch Club subject, executed in 1911. The subject and title are inspired by a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes, xii. 5: ‘Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.’</p>
<p>Gilbert Spencer told the compiler (26 October 1961) that the site of the <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> background was a view looking south from the corner of Carter's Shed, by Lambert's Stables, Cookham, and the same background appears again in ‘Joachim among the Shepherds’ (see <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/spencer-study-for-joachim-among-the-shepherds-t00048" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T00048</span></a>). The tree, and the chain and post fence, have been introduced.</p>
<p>The Tate Gallery owns a sketch of the same date by David Bomberg, ‘Sleeping Men’ (<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bomberg-sleeping-men-n03722" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03722</span></a>), also done for the Slade Sketch Club.</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
2004-10-08T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults architecture Berkshire Bible: Old Testament birth to death birth to death Cookham - non-specific Ecclesiastes 12 England England, South East England, Southern field grave landscape life, everlasting - evergreen tree man mortality people places religion and belief society symbols and personifications townscapes / man-made features tree UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions walking