Soap Suds: A Scrubbed Floor

Details

Soap Suds: A Scrubbed Floor
oil on canvas, framed
20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61.5 cm.)
Painted in 1926-27

Provenance

Richard Carline, by whom purchased at the 1927 exhibition; thence by descent through the Carline estate.

Literature

R. Carline, Stanley Spencer at War, London, 1978, p.176.
K. Bell, Stanley Spencer A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, London, 1992, no.117, p.414.

Exhibited

London, Goupil Gallery, The Resurrection and Other Works by Stanley Spencer, February 1927, no.48.
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, circa 1935, no.283.
Cookham, Stanley Spencer Gallery and Odney Club (Cookham Festival), Spencer and Carline in Hampstead in the 1920s, 1973, no.6 (as Soapsuds).
Cookham, Stanley Spencer Gallery, Summer 1976, no.40.
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, The Ruskin Drawing School under Sydney Carline (Master 1922-29) and his Staff, July-September 1977, no.52. London, Royal Academy, Stanley Spencer, September-December, 1980, no.102.

Lot Essay

'Painted in Spencer's Vale Hotel studio in Hampstead, while he was working on Scrubbing the Floor, (Bell 130b), the first canvas for the Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere. This can be seen on an easel in the corner of the studio. The artist clearly felt the need for an additional study of the soap suds before proceeding with the Burghclere picture.

The scene first occurs in the background of a pencil and grey wash sketch, Scrubbing the Floor and Soldiers Washing, Beaufort Hospital, Bristol, (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) which was executed for the proposed war memorial at Steep Village Hall in 1921.
(see K. Bell, Royal Academy exhibition catalogue, London, 1980, pp.80 & 101). See also catalogue notes to lots 33, 78 and 255.

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