That Marvellous Atmosphere: Stanley Spencer and Cookham Regatta

About

The Stanley Spencer Gallery’s summer exhibition That Marvellous Atmosphere: Stanley Spencer and Cookham Regatta, delves into Spencer’s last, great painting, Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta. Painted in 1952-9, this huge but sadly unfinished work will be exhibited alongside 28 related works. Included are paintings and drawings from this flourishing time in Spencer’s artistic career, as well as major loans from Tate and National Museums Liverpool. The exhibition opens 3 April and runs until 2 November 2025 at The Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham.

The inspiration behind Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta

Drawing on his childhood memories of Cookham Regatta and its Grand Evening Concert, Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta imagines Christ preaching from the old Horse Ferry Barge to the listening revellers in their finery. Spencer was so excited by his overflowing ideas for the painting that he frequently stayed up into the small hours, making hundreds of preparatory drawings. In characteristic fashion, he turned his childhood memories of the golden era of the Regatta into an event of great spiritual significance. Spencer explained, ‘Everything to do with love is meant in this Regatta scene. In that marvellous atmosphere nothing can go wrong.'

Paintings featuring in That Marvellous Atmosphere: Stanley Spencer and Cookham Regatta

The exhibition will explore the context, creation and meaning of his visionary final painting, bringing together related paintings and drawings from public and private collections. On loan from Tate will be Dinner on the Hotel Lawn (1956-7), one of seven paintings in the associated Regatta series that Spencer exhibited and sold while he was working on the main painting. The loans of Edward Gregory’s oil study for Boulter’s Lock, Sunday Afternoon (c.1882-97) from National Museums Liverpool, Hector Caffieri’s Going to Cookham Lock (c.1889) from a private collection, and historic Cookham Regatta memorabilia will bring to life the golden age of boating on the river Thames.

Spencer's last years

Spencer devoted almost a decade to planning and painting Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta, but delayed by competing priorities and ill health, it was still only three-fifths complete when he died of cancer in December 1959. He intended it to express his own unique vision of God’s love for the world, as he understood it through his own love for Cookham. The exhibition will explore the characters and incidents that crowd the canvas, unlocking the meaning of this great work.

The exhibition’s curator Dr Amy Lim says, “Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta consumed Spencer’s imagination and energy for the last decade of his life, and he intended it to be a counterpart to the great work of his early career, The Resurrection, Cookham. Despite nearly a decade’s work, he tragically died before he was able to finish it. The silver lining is that the unfinished painting gives us a wonderful insight into his working methods. The exhibition will display many of Spencer’s preparatory drawings alongside the painting, so visitors will be able to get a real understanding of how he created such a huge and complex painting. The scene is set by Cookham Bridge, very close to the Stanley Spencer Gallery, so after learning about the painting and the historic Regatta, visitors will be able to stroll down and see for themselves the beautiful stretch of the river Thames where the action takes place."