PROVENANCE
Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd., London
Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
Alfred Hickling, "Never Marry an Artist," The Guardian, February 24, 1999

The circa date on this typically eccentric yet intriguing drawing by Stanley Spencer is supported by the artist’s inscription: Stanley [and] Hilda. The artist’s first marriage to fellow artist, Hilda Carline, began in 1925 and ended 12 years later after what was described in a 1999 article in The Guardian as “the most bizarre domestic soap opera in the history of British art”. Despite that apt description, Spencer obsessed about his passion for Hilda long after their divorce and continued to write to her even after her, and in 1937 began his Beatitudes of Love series for which Lovers is clearly a prelude.

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