Spencer Gore (artist)
Encyclopedia
Camden Town Group
The Camden Town Group was a group of English Post-Impressionist artists active 1911-1913. They gathered frequently at the studio of painter Walter Sickert in the Camden Town area of London.-History:...
, and was influenced by the Post-Impressionists.
Early years
He was born on 26 May 1878 at Epsom in Surrey, the youngest of the four children of the Wimbledon tennis champion, Spencer Gore and his wife Amy Margaret (nee Smith). His father's brother was the theologian Charles GoreCharles Gore
Charles Gore was a British theologian and Anglican bishop.-Early life and education:Gore was the third son of the Honourable Charles Alexander Gore, and brother of the fourth Earl of Arran...
. His father sent him to board at Harrow School
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
in London. He went on to study painting in London at the Slade School of Fine Art
Slade School of Fine Art
The Slade School of Fine Art is a world-renownedart school in London, United Kingdom, and a department of University College London...
, where he was a contemporary of Harold Gilman
Harold Gilman
The British artist Harold John Wilde Gilman was a painter of interiors, portraits and landscapes, and a founder-member of the Camden Town Group.-Early life and studies:...
.
Painting career
In 1904 Albert Rutherston introduced him to Walter SickertWalter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....
at Dieppe; and afterwards he associated in Fitzroy Street, London, with Sickert, Lucien Pissarro
Lucien Pissarro
Lucien Pissarro was a landscape painter, printmaker, wood engraver and designer and printer of fine books. His landscape paintings employ techniques of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, but he also exhibited with Les XX. Apart from his landscapes he painted only a few still-lifes and family...
, Harold Gilman
Harold Gilman
The British artist Harold John Wilde Gilman was a painter of interiors, portraits and landscapes, and a founder-member of the Camden Town Group.-Early life and studies:...
and Charles Ginner
Charles Ginner
Charles Isaac Ginner was a painter of landscape and urban subjects. Born in the south of France at Cannes, of British parents, in 1910 he settled in London, where he was an associate of Spencer Gore and Harold Gilman and a key member of the Camden Town Group.-Early years and studies:Charles Isaac...
. In 1909 he became a member of the New English Art Club
New English Art Club
The New English Art Club was founded in London in 1885 as an alternate venue to the Royal Academy.-History:Young English artists returning from studying art in Paris mounted the first exhibition of the New English Art Club in April 1886...
, and in 1910 contributed an article to The Art News on 'The Third London Salon of the Allied Artists Association
Allied Artists Association
The Allied Artists Association was an art exhibiting society based in London in the early 20th century.-History:The Allied Artists Association was founded by Frank Rutter, art critic of The Sunday Times newspaper, in 1908....
'.
In 1911 he was a co-founder and first president of the Camden Town Group
Camden Town Group
The Camden Town Group was a group of English Post-Impressionist artists active 1911-1913. They gathered frequently at the studio of painter Walter Sickert in the Camden Town area of London.-History:...
.
In January 1912 he married Mary Joanna ("Molly") Kerr, with whom he had two children - Margaret Elizabeth (1912-1994) and Frederick John Pym (1913-2009); the latter would become well known as the painter Frederick Gore
Frederick Gore
Frederick John Pym Gore CBE RA , was a British painter. -Biography:Gore was born into the world of art; his mother, Mary Joanna Kerr, was a dancer from Edinburgh, and his father, Spencer Frederick Gore, a painter, President of the Camden Town Group until his early death in March 1914.As a young...
. His widow died at Meopham, Kent in 1968.
In 1913 he became a member of the London Group
London Group
The London Group is an artists' exhibiting society based in London, England, founded in 1913, when the Camden Town Group came together with the English Vorticists and other independent artists to challenge the domination of the Royal Academy, which had become unadventurous and conservative....
.
His later works show growing concern with pictorial construction, under the influence of the Post-Impressionists. He experimented with colour in his works, as may be seen in his painting "Hartington Square".
He died of pneumonia at Richmond, Surrey, on 27 March 1914, aged thirty-six.