Unity Spencer: Lucky to be an Artist

There is a famous portrait by Stanley Spencer of his wife and their daughter and her dolls, completed in 1937 called Hilda, Unity and Dolls. Both mother and child very serious and unsmiling; the dolls black-eyed and seemingly empty. Painted in the aftermath of the disastrous split between Spencer and his wife, the painting reflects the ruin and emptiness that awaited him and the subsequent mental breakdown on Hilda. But from those from those dark days, Unity followed her father’s example and followed her art. Condition: Fine