Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Contemporary Art Society
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>
Christ Carrying Cross
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1925
actions: expressive
adults
angel
architecture
Berkshire
Bible: New Testament
Christ
Cookham - non-specific
cottage
crowd
Crucifixion
England
England, South East
England, Southern
groups
house
ivy
ladder
man
objects
Passion
people
places
plants and flowers
procession
railing
religion and belief
residential
street
tools and machinery
townscapes / man-made features
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
universal religious imagery
weeping
woman
<p>Here Spencer depicts a scene from the end of Christ’s life taking place in his own hometown. In the biblical account, Christ carries the cross through Jerusalem, but Spencer sets the scene in the English village of Cookham. Spencer believed that religious feeling was present in everyday settings and events. This painting was partly inspired by watching builders carrying ladders down a Cookham street. These figures are present in the painting, following behind Christ. The Virgin Mary sits by a railing in the foreground. The brick house is the artist’s family home.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2020</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
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
30 August 2004 – 13 August 2007
2007-08-13
30 August 2004
2004-08-30
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2004-08-30
On England
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
1 April 2014 – 31 March 2015
2015-03-31
1 April 2014 – 31 March 2015
2015-03-31
2014-04-01
Stanley Spencer Gallery (Cookham, UK)
http://www.cookham.com/about/spencer.htm
2014-04-01
Stanley Spencer
Loan-out
22 May 2017 – 28 July 2019
2019-07-28
22 May 2017 – 28 July 2019
2019-07-28
2017-05-22
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2017-05-22
Blake Legacy
Collection based display
5 June 2018 – 23 September 2018
2018-09-23
5 June 2018 – 23 September 2018
2018-09-23
2018-06-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2018-06-05
Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One
Exhibition
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
Christ Carrying the Cross
support: 1530 × 1429 mm
frame: 1777 × 1670 × 68 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> 1925
<div class="text">
<p>Here Spencer depicts a scene from the end of Christ’s life taking place in his own hometown. In the biblical account, Christ carries the cross through Jerusalem, but Spencer sets the scene in the English village of Cookham. Spencer believed that religious feeling was present in everyday settings and events. This painting was partly inspired by watching builders carrying ladders down a Cookham street. These figures are present in the painting, following behind Christ. The Virgin Mary sits by a railing in the foreground. The brick house is the artist’s family home.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-10-22T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04117</b> CHRIST CARRYING THE CROSS 1920</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Not inscribed.
<br/>Canvas, 60 1/4×56 1/4 (153×143).
<br/>Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1925.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by the C.A.S. from the artist through the Grosvenor Galleries 1921.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> <i>Nameless Exhibition</i>, Grosvenor Galleries, June 1921 (19); C.A.S., <i>Paintings and Drawings</i>, Grosvenor House, June–July 1923 (122); Tate Gallery, November–December 1955 (17).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Wilenski, 1924, pp.27–8, repr. pl.15; Johnson, 1932, p.331; Wilenski, 1933, pp.284–5, repr. pl.131; Chamot, 1937, p.74; A. Bertram, <i>A Century of British Painting, 1851–1951</i>, 1951, p.105, repr. p.190 (in colour); Spencer, 1961, pp.158, 167; Collis, 1962, pp.20, 25, 68–9, 243.
<br/><i>Repr:</i>
Rothenstein, 1945, pl.14; Newton, 1947, pl.3 (in colour).</p>
<p>Painted in 1920 whilst the artist was staying with Sir Henry Slesser and his family at Corner-ways, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, the idea for this picture was partly suggested by a newspaper report of Queen Victoria's funeral recounted by Sir Henry. A sentence, which ran somewhat as follows, ‘Women publicly wept, and strong men broke down in side streets’, suggested that in that more tragic circumstance the Virgin might have passed into a side street to be unobserved. The house is the artist's in Cookham and the ivy-covered cottage is his grandmother's. The Virgin is in the foreground. When he was thinking of the picture and wishing it would come into the light of day the artist saw builder's men go past carrying ladders and this seemed one part of the ‘fact’ of Christ Carrying the Cross. His feeling was one not of sadness but of joy. ‘It was joy and all the common everyday occurrences in the village were re-assuring, comforting occurrences of that joy.... I had as a child no thought than that Christ had made everything wonderful and glorious and that I might be able later on to join in that glory.’</p>
<p>The artist described to the compiler in conversations and letters at the time of the Tate Gallery exhibition in 1955 how 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> underwent various changes in <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>. ‘The movement of the way to Calvary passes from the right to the left. Rather the movement of a breaker approaching a shore... The Cross as far as its position in the picture is concerned is right enough, but I still feel it a pity that I failed to arrive at the notion I hoped for. I had made several <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> attempts of the Cross and disciples ranged somewhat procession-wise either side of it, some of the soldiers helping in the carrying of the Cross,...some escorting them.’ This idea was considerably modified to obtain greater clarity of composition.</p>
<p>The action is partly inspired by childhood scenes of Cookham life. ‘As youths we stood with other village youths in a gate opposite our house (“Fernlea”) and watched the people go by on Sundays and in evenings... The window of the ivy-covered cottage (“Belmont”) is associated in my mind with my liking to be up in a large yew tree from which I could survey the worlds not only of our own garden but other gardens beyond, and also from liking to stick small branching springs of Yew in the cracks of the nursery floor, making a small forest of trees over the floor and cutting out cardboard figures and putting them up in these trees.’</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/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> and sepia wash working drawing for this composition (14 1/2×13 3/8 in.) was lent by Richard Carline to the Arts Council's <i>Drawings by Stanley Spencer</i> exhibition, 1955 (25), and was acquired by Carline from the Goupil Gallery exhibition, 1927 (15). Another drawing (10×9 in.), showing a detail of the house on the left, was presented by G. G. Shiel to the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham, and is reproduced in that gallery's exhibition catalogue, summer 1963 (27).</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
2004-10-05T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive adults angel architecture Berkshire Bible: New Testament Christ Cookham - non-specific cottage crowd Crucifixion England England, South East England, Southern groups house ivy ladder man objects Passion people places plants and flowers procession railing religion and belief residential street tools and machinery townscapes / man-made features UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions universal religious imagery weeping woman