|
Date: |
|
Description: | IH inscr. "leaving for lunch / 140"; inscr "Taking plate from a Plate Rack / 150" CRE SPENCER, Stanley; (English; 1891-1959) Spencer had gone to Lithgow's shipyard on the Clyde for a fortnight in May 1940 to do the first preliminary drawings for the series. The canvases were begun in October 1941 and finished in May 1942. These drawings were not part of the original plan, but was intended as the first of several panels to be placed beneath the originally planned paintings of different shipyard activities as a sort of predella. A Predella underneath helped to correct the proportion of the series which otherwise would have been too long in comparison with its height. Spencer also had a large number of sketches unsuitable for use in the original panels which he was reluctant not to use.
The template is a rather wavy skeleton of wood carried by three men at the left of the composition. It is used to transfer the shape of awkward plates from the mould on the loft floor where they would have been drawn with a high degree of accuracy onto flat steel plates which would eventually fit onto the framing. The template would then be places on the framing and rivet holes drawn on it so that the holes and their relative positions could then be transferred to the actual plate prior to cutting and punching. In the centre of the composition Red Leaders apply a coat of red lead paint to completed ventilators. these ventilators were used to provide a supply of fresh air to engine and cargo spaces. A special special primer paint made from red oxide is applied to the bare clean steel prior to various coloured coats of paint. It acts as a rust inhibitor..
At the right men hand supplies of material to the site and set up a small railway track.
Not all of these activities could have gone on alongside in the shipyard. Spencer also introduces a mother and child - possibly because he regarded these pictures as altarpieces.
Above went the burners, the first of the canvases commissioned - originally one canvas was commissioned for £50. spencer painted three and was paid £150 for the triptych. He then agreed to do another of the same size for a further £150. | License: | http://www.hmag.gla.ac.uk/spirit/rights/ | Publisher: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Rights holder: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Subjects: | INDUSTRY : GLASGOW : SHIPBUILDING : FIGURE : | Source: | Hunterian Museum | Creator: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Identifier: | http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
|
|