Joachim among the shepherds

item details

NameJoachim among the shepherds

ProductionSir Stanley Spencer; painter; 1913; England

Classificationoil paintings

Materialsoil paint, canvas

Materials Summaryoil on canvas

DimensionsImage: 519mm (height), 385mm (length)

Registration Number1965-0021-1

Credit linePurchased 1965 with Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand funds and Wellington City Council Picture Purchase Fund

Overview

Joachim Among the Shepherds is an early example of Stanley Spencer's religious paintings. It is set in the landscape of his home and birthplace: Cookham in Berkshire, England.

Seeking the setting
Spencer's work at this time had an allegorical quality, incorporating both local and biblical personalities into familiar settings. The young artist described how he found Joachim in the fields of Cookham: 'I liked to take my thoughts for a walk and marry them to some place in Cookham. The "bread and cheese" hedge up the Strand ash-path was the successful suitor. There was another hedge going away at right angles from the path and this was where the shepherds seemed to be.'

The impact of Giotto
Spencer was given John Ruskin's book Giotto and his works in 1911 and was inspired by the reproduction of Giotto's Joachim Returns to the Sheepfold. In his painting Spencer made the connection with Giotto's work through the simplicity of the gestures and an emphasis on solid forms. Between making the study and this painting, Spencer developed the composition, condensing the space in the foreground so that Joachim seems 'hemmed in' with the viewer.

A major work
Joachim Among the Shepherds was exhibited in a major retrospective of Spencer's work at the Tate Gallery, London, in 1955, and it was purchased for the National Art Gallery collection ten years later.