Study for Tea in bed and Family group (recto)

The present study for Tea in bed refers to a drawing taken from Volume I, page 28 of the artist's 'Derwent Sketchbooks', which he worked on throughout the 1940s. Carolyn Leder (op. cit., p.10) discusses the subject of Tea in Bed, '... although an adult subject, [Spencer] shows this interweaving of his childhood with his later life'. Spencer himself explains 'This is a subject that has been a part of the world & life of love, a possible happening in heaven through my many experiences of desire & also through the period of my childhood memory. It was at the time of being a child a great moment to me when possibly because I had not been well I was in the centre of the bed when the servant brought in pa & mas breakfast which was on a big black tin decorated tray. Mentally I have been "bedridden" all my life. So much of my childhood feeling has become my adult feeling that except for the desire element there is no perceptible difference.' Leder returns to Tea in bed, 'This drawing shows quite clearly his love of refining forms down into basic, simplified shapes. The circles made by the tea cups and saucers, the tea pot and lid, and the large tray echo each other ... the hillocks formed by the four sets of toes are another favourite compositional device'. (See also catalogue note to lot 91).