Study for The Anthracite Stove (recto)

The present work is a study for the central section of the central panel of a pentaptychal series which was commissioned by the Empire Marketing Board in 1929. The subject matter was Industry and Peace. In 1937 Spencer wrote a commentary on the paintings, 'I ... decided that the whole scheme should consist of a long sort of room where people gathered together as people visiting some Eastern town might have gathered together ... in some sort of caravanserai. To give the impression of a kind of communion of life and people from a variety of callings, trades and professions, I have placed in the central panel an anthracite stove, and round it I have imagined people employed in the town who come to eat their lunch, and to lay the tables ...' (Tate 733.3.1).