Figure and interior studies relating to the Creche idea

The Creche drawings were intended to be a decorative scheme for the Church House project. On the verso side of 29 Creche is a study for the central crouching boy (Spencer's brother Gilbert) for the oil, Villagers and Saints, (University of Hull), 1933, (Bell 153). Gilbert Spencer explains the foreground area of the oil composition, 'When our servant, Alice Timms, used to clean out the kitchen, she would take up the doormats and, without looking, fling them out of the door. If we happened to be playing marbles at the time, she flung them on top of us (as, in this case, on me). Stan is seen digging down deeply into his bag of marbles, while I draw this ring with a stick. It was a great game of our childhood' (see G. Spencer, op. cit., p.184).