Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
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>
Apple Gatherers
Presented by Sir Edward Marsh 1946
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
actions: processes and functions
adults
agriculture and fishing
apple
architecture
arm / arms raised
basket
boy
carrying / holding
children
emotions, concepts and ideas
fertility
food and drink
fruit, apple
garden structures
girl
group
groups
harvesting
holding hands
man
objects
orchard
people
universal concepts
vessels and containers
woman
work and occupations
<p>The subject of this painting was given to Spencer by his teachers at the Slade School of Art. The scene was suggested by a spot on Odney Common, in his native village of Cookham.</p><p>Spencer wrote of the painting: ‘There is no symbolic meaning whatsoever intended in Apple Gatherers and I cannot account for the fact I have divided the sexes.’ The distortions of form and scale show Spencer’s interest in paintings he had seen in London by the French Post-Impressionist artist, Paul Gauguin.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
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
16 October 2010 – 4 November 2012
2012-11-04
16 October 2010 – 4 November 2012
2012-11-04
2010-10-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-10-16
Gallery 10
Collection based display
5 June 2013 – 22 September 2013
2013-09-22
5 June 2013 – 22 September 2013
2013-09-22
2013-06-05
Dulwich Picture Gallery (London, UK)
2013-06-05
A Crisis of Brilliance
Loan-out
29 March 2018 – 4 November 2018
2018-11-04
29 March 2018 – 4 November 2018
2018-11-04
2018-03-29
Stanley Spencer Gallery (Cookham, UK)
http://www.cookham.com/about/spencer.htm
2018-03-29
Stanley Spencer - Patrons and Collectors
Loan-out
31 October 2022
31 October 2022
2022-10-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-10-31
Gallery 4
Collection based display
Apple Gatherers
support: 714 × 924 mm
frame: 945 × 1145 × 70 mm
Presented by Sir Edward Marsh 1946
<p>'This picture', Spencer wrote in 1939 in his notes about his pictures, 'was my first ambitious work and I have in it wished to say what life was' (Tate Archive 733.3.21). The subject, however, was chosen for him, as it was set by the Slade School for their annual <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> competition (see 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-apple-gatherers-n06233" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06233</span></a>). Spencer's teacher, Henry Tonks, had arranged for him to spend part of the 1911-12 Christmas holiday with an old Slade student near Taunton. The surrounding orchards must partly have been an inspiration. In 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/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> Spencer sought to give form to a pantheistic vision of connection between man, woman, nature and fertility, in 1941 recording in his notebook:

</p><p></p><blockquote>
<p>The apples and the laurel and the grass can fulfil themselves through the presence in their midst: the husband and wife of all places and elements of the picture  The couple in the centre here seem not to need each other in any personal way or even be aware of each other. They seem only co-existent with each other like earth and water, yet it seems a vital relationship.<br/></p><blockquote>
<p>(Tate Archive 733.2.85)<br/></p></blockquote>
<p>Although Spencer claims the couple 'seem not to need each other', and placed them back to back, their arms are intertwined like two trees of life grown together. Their opposite arms spread like branches above their children, who are adult but because of their disparity of size appear child-like. Such distortions of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/form" title="Glossary definition for 'Form'"><span>form</span></a> and scale, and the eradication of <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/perspective" title="Glossary definition for 'Perspective'"><span>perspective</span></a>, demonstrate the effect on Spencer of paintings by Gauguin, which he had seen recently in London. But these '<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/primitivism" title="Glossary definition for 'Primitivism'"><span>primitive</span></a>' qualities can also be connected with his passionate interest in early Italian art around this time. There are additional affinities with <i>Jewish Family </i>(1913 Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gertler-jewish-family-n06231" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06231</span></a>) by Spencer's Slade friend Mark Gertler (1891-1939). In the study for <i>Apple Gatherers</i> (Tate <span>N06233</span>) Spencer treats the figures more conventionally.

</p><p>Spencer presents a timeless, golden-age scene of harmony, a rural idyll which is sacramental in its vision of harvest. Yet it seems also to be about differences between the sexes - the central figures' awkward yet firm contact contrasts with the segregation of the sons and daughters. All have their backs turned to each other. The scene was suggested by a spot on Odney Common at Cookham, although it did not have an orchard. Spencer could see it from his nursery window  and perhaps this connection with childhood fuelled his ruminations on relations between the sexes and nature and his own progression to adulthood.

</p><p>The picture was painted in Wisteria Cottage in Cookham, an empty house which Spencer used as a studio. Here he experienced an intense sense of connection with nature and an almost ecstatic self-awareness, recording in his noetbook in c.1948:

</p><p>In the Apple Gatherers I felt moved to some utterance, a sense of almost miraculous power, and arising from the joy of my own circumstances and surroundings. Nothing particularised but all held and living in glory. The sons of God shouted for joy, the din of happiness all around me everywhere. (Tate Archive 733.8.35)

</p><p><b>Further reading</b>:<br/>Timothy Hyman and Patrick Wright (eds.), <i>Stanley Spencer</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain 2001, no.9, reproduced in colour <br/>Keith Bell, <i>Stanley Spencer: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings</i>, London, 1992, pp.19-22, no.12, reproduced in colour<br/><i>Stanley Spencer: A Sort of Heaven</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Liverpool 1992, pp.27-8, reproduced in colour

</p><p>Robert Upstone<br/>October 2001<br/></p></blockquote>
Summary
2005-12-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Stanley Spencer painted this work when he was a student at the Slade School of Art. Spencer described it as ‘my first ambitious work and I have in it wished to say what life was’. The idyllic family scene could allude to Spencer’s vision of the connections between men, women, nature and fertility. Though the two central figures hold hands, they face away from each other. It was probably inspired by the orchards in Taunton, or Odney Common in his native village of Cookham.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-12-01T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
<p><b>N05663</b> APPLE GATHERERS 1912–13</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Not inscribed.
<br/>Canvas, 28×36 1/4 (71·5×92·5).
<br/>Presented by Sir Edward Marsh on the reopening of the Tate Gallery 1946.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by Sir Edward Marsh from Henry Lamb, who negotiated the sale on behalf of the artist 1913.
<br/><i>Exh:</i>
C.A.S., <i>First Public Exhibition in London</i>, Goupil Gallery, April 1913 (152); <i>Twentieth Century Art</i>, Whitechapel Art Gallery, May–June 1914 (351); C.A.S., <i>Paintings and Drawings</i>, Grosvenor House, June–July 1923 (86); <i>Works of Art by Teachers and Students </i>of the Slade School, 1871–1927, University College, June–July 1927 (11); <i>Contemporary British Art</i>, Whitechapel Art Gallery, October–December 1929 (263); <i>Jubilee Exhibition</i>, Bradford, April–July 1930 (210); Venice Biennale, 1932 (British Pavilion, 110); <i>Contemporary Art</i>, Leicester, May–June 1936 (60); Venice Biennale, 1938 (British Pavilion, 67); British Council, <i>Contemporary British Art</i>, Northern Capitals, 1939 (105); Leger Gallery, March–April 1939 (21); <i>British Painting since Whistler</i>, National Gallery, 1940 (132); British Council, <i>Contemporary British Art</i>, North Africa, 1945 (74); Tate Gallery, November–December 1955 (5, repr. pl.1).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Wilenski, 1924, p.11, repr. pl.4; E. Marsh, <i>A Number of People</i>, 1939, p.359; James Thrall Soby, <i>Contemporary Painters</i>, New York, 1948, p.123; A. Bertram, <i>A Century of British Painting</i>, 1851–1951, 1951, p.105; Spencer, 1961, pp.112, 115, 192; Collis, 1962, pp.36–7, 39–41, 243.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Rothenstein, 1945, pls.9–10; Rothenstein, 1963, pl.2 (in colour).</p>
<p>Painted at Cookham in 1912–13, ‘Apple Gatherers’ was a Slade Sketch Club subject. The artist pondered for a long time on the fact that he was to do 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/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> on this theme. He had no wish to produce something based directly on nature. He thought that this picture, on which he had worked for over a year, was a mysterious thing - an achievement of vision - and that it was one of his most important works. There is no conscious reference to Adam and Eve. 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/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> for the whole composition now in the Tate Gallery (<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-apple-gatherers-n06233" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06233</span></a>) is probably the one done at the Slade.</p>
<p>Gilbert Spencer recalls (<i>op. cit.,</i> p. 192) that just before his brother died, he told him he had painted ‘Apple Gatherers’ on top of his first attempt to paint a ‘Resurrection’. He also remarks that the right arm and hand of the boy, and the left arm and hand of the girl in the immediate foreground are drawn from the artist's own hands and arms. One might add that the hands and arms of the two apple gatherers who form the central axis of the picture also bear a family resemblance.</p>
<p>X-ray <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/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photographs</span></a> 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/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>, taken in October 1961, while not confirming the presence of an entirely different composition underneath <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/spencer-apple-gatherers-n05663" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05663</span></a>, show various <i>pentimenti</i> to the existing work, notably around the upraised hands and arms of the two central figures. The head of the man has also been considerably elongated, and there are minor alterations to some of the heads of the figures on the right. The left arm of the apple gatherer in the right foreground was originally dipping down into a basket instead of, as now, resting bent on the edge of a basket. There is also evidence of a considerable amount of scraping away of underpaint, and of heavy <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impasto" title="Glossary definition for 'Impasto'"><span>impasto</span></a> over much 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/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>. This extensive reworking of the composition would also accord with the artist's statement that he spent a year finishing this picture which, with the ‘Nativity’ of 1912 in the collection of University College, London, and Lady Bone's ‘Zacharias and Elizabeth’, is one of his major figure compositions of the years 1910–13.</p>
<p>There appears to be a layer of white priming put over the skeleton of the earlier composition which, having a high lead content, prevents X-ray penetration beyond this priming. However, photographs of the painting taken in strong raking light have revealed the incised outline of the head and shoulders of a female figure, seen upside-down, in the area of the basket and elbow of the right-hand figure in the centre foreground. This figure, Giottesque in conception, corresponds with what Gilbert Spencer could recall of the original composition, which he told the compiler (26 October 1961) consisted of an avenue of cypress trees with the resurrected figures, rather like angels, rising from the trees. The recently discovered outline figure would have been slightly to the left of the apex of the composition. The inspiration for this composition may in part have been some illustrations by Gustave Doré for a children's Bible, which belonged to the Spencer family.</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: expressive actions: postures and motions actions: processes and functions adults agriculture and fishing apple architecture arm / arms raised basket boy carrying / holding children emotions, concepts and ideas fertility food and drink fruit, apple garden structures girl group groups harvesting holding hands man objects orchard people universal concepts vessels and containers woman work and occupations