0:00:12 > 0:00:17In May 1940, during one of the darkest hours of the 20th century,
0:00:17 > 0:00:22an artist arrived at Port Glasgow on the River Clyde.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25His name was Stanley Spencer.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28Over the next six years,
0:00:28 > 0:00:33he forged one of the greatest cycles of paintings in British art.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37A portrait of industry, war,
0:00:37 > 0:00:40and the inextinguishable human spirit.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48I'm Lachlan Goudie, and I'm also an artist.
0:00:48 > 0:00:53For several years I've been drawing and painting in the Clyde shipyards.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57Stanley Spencer's paintings have been a huge inspiration to me,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01but I've always wondered why such a quintessentially English
0:01:01 > 0:01:06artist was drawn to the subject of Scottish shipbuilding.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11What did he find here that provoked such a radical series of canvases?
0:01:11 > 0:01:16To find out, I'll be talking to Spencer's shipyard gave.
0:01:16 > 0:01:21The man was so tied up in sketching and art
0:01:21 > 0:01:25and painting, that that came before anything else in his life.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31I'll uncover the early sketches which inspired these
0:01:31 > 0:01:33monumental canvasses.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36- This is a beautiful drawing. - Yes, and we're lucky to have it
0:01:36 > 0:01:39because of course he gave away a lot of his portraits to people.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43And by exploring the world of Spencer's paintings,
0:01:43 > 0:01:48I hope to better understand the revelation that awaited him
0:01:48 > 0:01:50beyond the gates of the shipyard.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56Stanley Spencer left wartime England
0:01:56 > 0:01:59in search of hope, love and redemption.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02And he would find them all here, by the Clyde.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31Any river is a place of constant change.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33But on the Clyde change has been dramatic.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39BAE Systems in Govan where I work as an artist is one of the last
0:02:39 > 0:02:42places on the river where ships are still built.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46But just upstream at the Riverside Museum
0:02:46 > 0:02:49you can still catch a glimpse of history.
0:02:55 > 0:03:00This painting - Burners - was created by Stanley Spencer
0:03:00 > 0:03:05in August 1940, whilst the Battle of Britain raged.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08But it depicts an unexpected struggle -
0:03:08 > 0:03:14the men whose mission it was to tailor a ship from steel.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18And this world, these people - they still exist.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22I recognise them along with Spencer's tumbling perspectives,
0:03:22 > 0:03:28from the hours I've spent gazing down from the gantries in Govan shipyard.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31But whereas I'm intrigued by engineering spectacle,
0:03:31 > 0:03:36what's crucial for Spencer is the human element.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40People dominated his paintings and his creative philosophy.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50Spencer's yearning to explore the human heart of a place
0:03:50 > 0:03:55had its source in another community, another river -
0:03:55 > 0:03:57Cookham by the Thames.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04Stanley was born in this small village in 1891.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08He spent his childhood summers bathing in the Thames with his brothers.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14And as he grew older, those early memories of happy innocence
0:04:14 > 0:04:16were sanctified in his mind.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20Recollection and reality became blurred.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25In his imagination, Cookham was transformed into an earthly paradise.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32"Resurrection: Cookham," completed in 1927.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37Never has England looked more like God's own country.
0:04:46 > 0:04:51It's a painted Hallelujah, a blossoming vision that celebrates
0:04:51 > 0:04:53the promise of resurrection.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58But instead of halos and angels' wings, Stanley brings together
0:04:58 > 0:05:02family and friends as the naked and the dead.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06From the suffocating subsoil of Cookham graveyard,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09he elicits a flowering of wonder and joy.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14But of course Spencer was no stranger to death.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17He had served as a medical orderly during the World War I
0:05:17 > 0:05:20and later wrote, "I buried so many people,
0:05:20 > 0:05:24"I felt that death could not be the end of everything."
0:05:24 > 0:05:29No-one, however, least of all Stanley, could have known
0:05:29 > 0:05:33how many graves were awaiting as a new war engulfed Europe.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42Spencer was 48 when the German panzers rolled into Poland,
0:05:42 > 0:05:43too old to be called up.
0:05:47 > 0:05:53But he was eager to offer his services to the new government body charged with commissioning war art.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Spencer's first proposal reflected his religious preoccupations -
0:05:59 > 0:06:04a large allegorical crucifixion representing the suffering of Poland.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06But the War Artist's Advisory Committee
0:06:06 > 0:06:10had a very different subject in mind for the visionary from Cookham.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18In the spring of 1940, Stanley Spencer,
0:06:18 > 0:06:23the artist of peace, domesticity and spiritual contemplation,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27was sent to paint a picture of shipbuilding.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30# When days are burdened With sorrow...#
0:06:32 > 0:06:36The shipyards of the Clyde weren't exactly a pretty picture.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39But with the nation desperately reliant on supplies
0:06:39 > 0:06:43shipped from overseas, they were now on the front line.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46And the government wanted an artist to record their vital work.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53Spencer's destination was Port Glasgow.
0:06:53 > 0:06:59This small riverside town was once the thumping heart of British shipbuilding.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07And this was once the site of Lithgow's Shipyard.
0:07:10 > 0:07:18Today you have to imagine the steel hulls careering through the aisles of baked beans and Pot Noodles.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23But during World War II, more merchant tonnage was launched from here than anywhere else in Britain.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33When Stanley Spencer arrived in Port Glasgow in May 1940
0:07:33 > 0:07:38he was understandably nervous - well out of his comfort zone.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43To help him find his bearings he was introduced to a shipyard chaperone.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48John Dodds was a foreman welder at the Lithgow's Kingston yard
0:07:48 > 0:07:53when he was given the job of looking after the disorientated artist.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56What was it like working there as a welder?
0:07:56 > 0:07:59Very rough. Very rough.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03You were working out in the open at all times
0:08:03 > 0:08:07and you were expected to do that unless the weather became
0:08:07 > 0:08:12absolutely inclement and it was impossible to work.
0:08:12 > 0:08:18But Stanley was not dressed for that sort of thing.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22And you felt to a certain extent a little bit sorry for him.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24He just had the barest pair of trousers
0:08:24 > 0:08:26and a jacket on and a shirt.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30His footwear was absolutely pathetic!
0:08:30 > 0:08:34You know, we were wearing at that time boots.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36But Stanley had on a pair of shoes
0:08:36 > 0:08:40that we would have worn going to a dance!
0:08:40 > 0:08:43But he seemed to put up with that.
0:08:43 > 0:08:49The man was so tied up in sketching and art and painting that
0:08:49 > 0:08:53that came before anything else in his life.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57And tell me, did those other men that he observed working...
0:08:57 > 0:09:00What did they think about Stanley?
0:09:00 > 0:09:03Did they think he was unusual in any way or...?
0:09:03 > 0:09:08Well, the most I ever heard anyone saying is, "He's a strange person."
0:09:09 > 0:09:11He wasn't what you would say talkative.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13He didn't sort of break into conversation.
0:09:13 > 0:09:18He was just a quiet, really nice man.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22To give you an instance of that, about ten o'clock what we had
0:09:22 > 0:09:28in Port Glasgow was a morning roll with some butter or margarine on it,
0:09:28 > 0:09:30or jam if it was possible.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34But the hardest job was to get him taking some butter or margarine
0:09:34 > 0:09:38because that actually came from rations
0:09:38 > 0:09:43and he felt as if he was using your rations there.
0:09:43 > 0:09:49The point was, the man was so considerate
0:09:49 > 0:09:52you couldn't be otherwise than take to him.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00Behind the unassuming appearance was a fiercely determined artist.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06Spencer immediately got down to work.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12To begin with, it must have been a bewildering experience.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17As I've discovered, the labyrinthine world of the shipyard
0:10:17 > 0:10:20is difficult to summarise in a sketchbook.
0:10:27 > 0:10:32Compressing all this complexity onto one sheet of paper is a challenge.
0:10:32 > 0:10:37But by sketching, you begin to understand the structures more clearly.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40And Spencer was an exquisite draughtsman. He was forensic
0:10:40 > 0:10:45in gathering up all the precise details of this strange, new environment.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53Many of the studies Spencer produced at Lithgow's yard
0:10:53 > 0:10:57are held at the Imperial War Museum in London.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01We have over 150 of these drawings.
0:11:01 > 0:11:02And there are a whole range of them.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05This one is a really interesting example
0:11:05 > 0:11:09because it's an architectural study of the inside of a ship.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13I'm sure a bit like what you've been looking at recently in the shipyards.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16It's wonderful also the sheer complexity of what
0:11:16 > 0:11:18he is managing to compress in here.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20Yes, he was strongly interested in the technique
0:11:20 > 0:11:21of Renaissance painters.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24So observational drawing, draughtsmanship,
0:11:24 > 0:11:27was very important for the way he was making work.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29You can see some of that legacy in his portrait drawings
0:11:29 > 0:11:32of some of the workers in the shipyard.
0:11:32 > 0:11:33This is a beautiful drawing.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35Yes, and we're lucky to have it,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38because of course he gave away a lot of his portraits to people.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41At the same as he's doing this lovely moulding.
0:11:41 > 0:11:42Lots of lovely shading.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45Shading, yes, exactly. His mind's always elsewhere.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47He's thinking of the final thing
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and here's a compositional study for "Welders".
0:11:50 > 0:11:53This is dated May 1940, one of his first visits
0:11:53 > 0:11:55and he's already thinking of compositions.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Absolutely. He was thinking big from the start.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00So his head is in all different kinds of places, he's doing
0:12:00 > 0:12:04very careful technical studies, portraits and also quick sketches.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07Yes. He's working very fast here,
0:12:07 > 0:12:09and trying to get the shapes with people moving.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14And in this one here, which bears similar traits of very speedy
0:12:14 > 0:12:17note-making, what's happening here?
0:12:17 > 0:12:20He's patched the drawings together so he's starting to think about
0:12:20 > 0:12:23how can these different scenes come together?
0:12:23 > 0:12:26You kind of get a real insight into the way he's thinking
0:12:26 > 0:12:28and the way he produces his art work.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31I love the way he's been drawing away and he thinks,
0:12:31 > 0:12:33"God, I can't fit these guys in here
0:12:33 > 0:12:35"so I need to stick on another sheet of paper."
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Yes, you can get a bit of the excitement and the energy through this drawing.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40It was very loud, very noisy,
0:12:40 > 0:12:43there would have been a lot of movement going on.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46- A shipyard's not an easy studio to have.- No, I can imagine.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51It wasn't just the clamour and commotion
0:12:51 > 0:12:54that made it difficult to capture the life of the shipyard.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59High quality drawing paper was in short supply during the war.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01The ever-resourceful Spencer, though,
0:13:01 > 0:13:03came up with an ingenious solution.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08He swapped sketchbooks for toilet rolls.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11Good waxy, wartime stuff.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16This allowed him to record the activity of the shipyard in one continuous outline.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19But it also provided him with a great party piece -
0:13:19 > 0:13:22no doubt he enjoyed the crowds that swarmed around him
0:13:22 > 0:13:25as he unfurled his cyclorama of lavvy paper.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31For Stanley Spencer there was an earthiness and honesty
0:13:31 > 0:13:34about Port Glasgow that he instinctively responded to.
0:13:38 > 0:13:44This community, bound by close ties of family and friendship, was deeply familiar.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47It reminded him of Cookham.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55But this was a place that still bore the scars of the Depression
0:13:55 > 0:13:58when 11 out of 12 men were unemployed.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06For any other artist, tough, industrial Port Glasgow
0:14:06 > 0:14:09would have seemed like the wilderness.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14But the truth was that Spencer already knew what the real wilderness felt like.
0:14:22 > 0:14:24For most of Spencer's life,
0:14:24 > 0:14:28Cookham had been his creative and emotional fulcrum.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32His life and art all hinged on this village by the Thames.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39"Resurrection: Cookham" commemorates this, but it also celebrates
0:14:39 > 0:14:43the person who had unlocked his happiness and spiritual philosophy.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48At the heart of the painting, asleep amongst the ivy,
0:14:48 > 0:14:50is the figure of Hilda Carline.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56Stanley married Hilda - a gifted artist in her own right -
0:14:56 > 0:15:01in 1925 while he was in the midst of painting his masterpiece.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07But Stanley Spencer's very English Eden
0:15:07 > 0:15:09was about to be visited by temptation.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16One afternoon, sitting in a local tearoom,
0:15:16 > 0:15:20Stanley Spencer looked up to find an unexpected vision before him.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23Her name was Patricia Preece.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26Preece was a young artist who had come to live in Cookham.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28Spencer was entranced.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30Over the next eight years, he was gripped
0:15:30 > 0:15:33by an intense sexual obsession.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37His marriage to Hilda crumbled and in 1937 they divorced.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41Within days Stanley married Patricia,
0:15:41 > 0:15:43but the union was never consummated
0:15:43 > 0:15:46and effectively collapsed in a matter of weeks.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50Spencer had slipped his moorings.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53The paintings lost their sense of direction
0:15:53 > 0:15:57and his dealer struggled to shift the new canvasses.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00Emotionally adrift and deep in debt,
0:16:00 > 0:16:04Spencer fled Cookham, his Eden no more.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10There were few people for whom the onset of World War II
0:16:10 > 0:16:13was anything other than disastrous.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15But in many ways it was the war
0:16:15 > 0:16:18and the assignment to Port Glasgow that saved Stanley.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23When the War Artists Committee dispatched him into the North,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27they expected Spencer to return with material for a canvas or two.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33But released from the emotional chaos of life in England,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36inspiration began to nudge at the artist.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40In his imagination there emerged the idea for a project
0:16:40 > 0:16:44that was breathtaking in its intensity and scale.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53In the archives of Tate Britain in London
0:16:53 > 0:16:56there's a tantalising clue to Spencer's growing ambition.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05So this is one of Stanley Spencer's notebooks from 1941.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07It's very fragile, hence the gloves.
0:17:07 > 0:17:13And on the inside cover is this unremarkable looking sketch.
0:17:13 > 0:17:18What it illustrates is an extraordinary proposal -
0:17:18 > 0:17:2368 separate panels inspired by the trades of the shipyard.
0:17:23 > 0:17:29You've got burners here. Riveters. Platers, and on and on.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33Paintings up to 15 feet in length, hung in multiple tiers
0:17:33 > 0:17:36across the walls of a purpose-built space.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38It's a cathedral for industry.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43This is an awesome vision, but Spencer didn't just dream it up.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54Less than a decade earlier he had decorated
0:17:54 > 0:17:58the Sandham Memorial Chapel in the Hampshire village of Burghclere.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02Inspired by the layout of an Italian Renaissance chapel,
0:18:02 > 0:18:07it was an epic format for a personal and poignant cycle
0:18:07 > 0:18:09of paintings about the Great War.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16Over on the left, you see a man who's being cut out of the wire.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20All these things, which were previously war themes,
0:18:20 > 0:18:23are now having to behave as the bringers
0:18:23 > 0:18:26of the happy message of the resurrection.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33Spencer's commission on the Clyde followed this ambitious template
0:18:33 > 0:18:35and provoked an equally life-affirming installation.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40Like Burghclere, the shipbuilding paintings would reveal
0:18:40 > 0:18:44a very intimate experience of overwhelming events.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50A painting like Burners
0:18:50 > 0:18:54isn't a portrayal of men crushed by industry.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57Nor is it a propagandist celebration of robotic workers
0:18:57 > 0:18:59powered by the state.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04For me, these men appear absorbed by their craft.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09And although the reality of bombs and destruction
0:19:09 > 0:19:11seems strangely absent,
0:19:11 > 0:19:15I think that Spencer manages to draw out the ideals
0:19:15 > 0:19:17for which war was fought -
0:19:17 > 0:19:22community, self-worth, freedom, love.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26This is what the sacrifice of war was meant to defend.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37It's perhaps no surprise that when Burners was exhibited
0:19:37 > 0:19:40in the first War Artist's Exhibition
0:19:40 > 0:19:44at the National Gallery in London, the response was ecstatic.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Spencer's industrial altarpiece
0:19:50 > 0:19:52became one of the most popular prints of World War II
0:19:52 > 0:19:56and helped revive his reputation.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58His patrons in government wanted more.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04It was a watershed moment,
0:20:04 > 0:20:06because in spite of the unparalleled contribution of industry
0:20:06 > 0:20:08to British history,
0:20:08 > 0:20:10until this point the number of artists
0:20:10 > 0:20:13who had explored the subject on canvas was shockingly small.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18But in World War II, the country's leading artists
0:20:18 > 0:20:22were commissioned to paint a vital and previously invisible,
0:20:22 > 0:20:24"backstage Britain" -
0:20:24 > 0:20:28shipyards, steel plants, armament factories.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34Spencer, though, couldn't help but look
0:20:34 > 0:20:37at the industrial landscape differently.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45Like most artists when confronted with a subject on this scale,
0:20:45 > 0:20:46I'm always looking upwards,
0:20:46 > 0:20:51craning my neck in order to capture the vast drama.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54But Spencer instead looks from side to side.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57He gives us a long, close-cropped storyboard.
0:21:00 > 0:21:05Spencer's unusual horizontal format was a compositional decision.
0:21:05 > 0:21:06But it might also have been influenced
0:21:06 > 0:21:09by the circumstances in which he worked.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14He didn't actually create the shipbuilding series in Port Glasgow.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18Instead Spencer worked up his pencil studies
0:21:18 > 0:21:22in a series of lodging rooms in the south of England.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25Without the space for enormous paintings,
0:21:25 > 0:21:29he simply tacked narrow rolls of canvas to the walls
0:21:29 > 0:21:30and broke out the brushes.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36Methodically he would work his way across an image,
0:21:36 > 0:21:39from one side to the other,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42never blocking in the colours all at once.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46He would use very thin sable brushes, feathering small marks
0:21:46 > 0:21:50over the canvas, so that by applying the pigment very thinly
0:21:50 > 0:21:57you could create a dry and chalky, resembling a Renaissance fresco.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00You can even see here the canvas coming through the paint.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05It's an extraordinarily retentive way to work.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07But in many ways, it tells us all we need know
0:22:07 > 0:22:10about Spencer as a person -
0:22:10 > 0:22:13cautious, obsessive, controlling. Neurotic, perhaps.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21But despite this fragile surface,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25Spencer boldly evokes an intense and claustrophobic world.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30It's when he pulls back that the work is less successful.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36This lower canvas is the Template
0:22:36 > 0:22:39and it's perhaps my least favourite painting.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41Instead of tight focus,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44Spencer shows us the huge hull of a ship
0:22:44 > 0:22:47and a unique glimpse of the river in the background.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51But to me it all seems a little bit unresolved,
0:22:51 > 0:22:55and there's one detail which may help explain why.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57It's this mother and her young child.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02Wives and children weren't actually allowed into the shipyard.
0:23:02 > 0:23:03But this mother and her infant
0:23:03 > 0:23:07depicted at the heart of Spencer's composition
0:23:07 > 0:23:10could be a cipher for some of the important people
0:23:10 > 0:23:12at the centre of his own world.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15Despite his divorce from Hilda Carline,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19Spencer remained passionately attached to her and their children.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22But whilst he was trying to complete the Template,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25Hilda suffered a psychological breakdown.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29Stanley hurried to help attend to her and his daughters.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34After a period of emotional upheaval,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38Spencer eventually returned to work on the Shipbuilding Series.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43But the war artist was becoming war-weary
0:23:43 > 0:23:46and his original master plan lost momentum.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51In the end he produced only eight out of the original scheme
0:23:51 > 0:23:53for up to 68 paintings.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59Creative and emotional tides
0:23:59 > 0:24:01were pulling Spencer in a different direction.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13In 1944, while on one of his sketching visits to Port Glasgow,
0:24:13 > 0:24:15Spencer met Charlotte Murray,
0:24:15 > 0:24:19the German-born wife of the high school art master.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21Spencer and Murray were soon involved
0:24:21 > 0:24:24in an intense physical and intellectual relationship.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29A psycho-analyst and student of Jung,
0:24:29 > 0:24:32Murray encouraged Spencer to revisit the spiritual idealism
0:24:32 > 0:24:33of his pre-war work.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37As the war approached its end,
0:24:37 > 0:24:40the artist was ready for a new epiphany.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47The story is that one evening, at his Port Glasgow lodgings,
0:24:47 > 0:24:51the landlady's son began to practise on his new drum kit.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Spencer escaped outside and wandered the streets of the town.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02After a little while he emerged at the hillside cemetery.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12"It was," he wrote later,
0:25:12 > 0:25:15"like arriving at an idea before I was ready for it."
0:25:19 > 0:25:23Port Glasgow Resurrection wasn't part of the war art commission,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26but in many ways it's an alternative centrepiece
0:25:26 > 0:25:28for the Shipbuilding cycle.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34Completed by Spencer in 1950,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38it welcomes on stage the loved ones from outside the shipyards.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42It's a great orgy of joy,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45now possible in a world resurrected from war.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52And there amongst the crowds bursting from the earth
0:25:52 > 0:25:55are some familiar faces -
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Charlotte Murray, being helped out of a grave...
0:26:00 > 0:26:02..and at the centre of the painting,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05a kneeling representation of Stanley and Hilda.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17Between 1944 and 1950,
0:26:17 > 0:26:21Spencer worked on a series of nine celebratory visions
0:26:21 > 0:26:22of Port Glasgow cemetery.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26In many ways they brought him full circle,
0:26:26 > 0:26:29revisiting the rapturous, transcendent scenes
0:26:29 > 0:26:31that had defined his early career.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40But, for me, his wartime shipbuilding paintings
0:26:40 > 0:26:42are unsurpassed.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46They are the canvasses we should celebrate.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52They are Spencer's hymn to Port Glasgow,
0:26:52 > 0:26:56its people and to the industry that revived his creative passion.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11The Govan yard where I paint is one of the last on the River Clyde.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17Spencer wouldn't recognise this industrial panorama any more,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20so much has changed and is changing.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29Even the last of the cranes, those proud landmarks,
0:27:29 > 0:27:30are now being demolished.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39But if we were to take one final stroll around the yard together,
0:27:39 > 0:27:43the human landscape would be entirely familiar to him.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48The figures, the faces, the trades being undertaken,
0:27:48 > 0:27:51the devotion, the community -
0:27:51 > 0:27:53all of that still survives.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Spencer came to believe that even during the most difficult times,
0:28:01 > 0:28:05art could always throw light into our wilderness.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07And, from the moment he was secure in that faith,
0:28:07 > 0:28:11he declared, "Every tomorrow has seemed as the world to come."
0:28:12 > 0:28:14In the shipyards of Port Glasgow,
0:28:14 > 0:28:18when all the world was loaded with tragedy and pessimism,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21Spencer didn't just ignore the darkness.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24He simply painted for people a vision of "Tomorrow"
0:28:24 > 0:28:29that they could all fight for, believe in and build together.