
Peter Rees
Director, Head of Sales
£40,000 - £60,000
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Provenance
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 5 November 1997, lot 268.
With Richard Green, London.
Private collection, USA.
Acquired from the estate of the above by the present owner.
Charles Spencelayh was born in Rochester, Kent in 1865. The youngest of eleven children, he displayed a natural flair for painting from an early age, reproducing old masters for local art dealers. After a more formal education in London, Spencelayh began exhibiting at the RA in 1892 and continued to do so until 1958, winning the 'Picture of the Year' award for Why War in 1939. He is most widely known for his genre portraits of old men in interiors, indulging their hobbies of collecting antiques or painting. His skill as a miniaturist translates to breathtaking attention to detail in larger canvases, while his subject matter conveys a particularly British, Dickensian sense of nostalgia. The following lots represent a range of Spencelayh's favourite subjects; the nobility and wisdom inherent with age, the gentility of the Victorian working class and most importantly for Spencelayh, the simple joy to be had by an old man pursuing his passion.