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Tiny COOKHAM , on the other side of the Thames just three miles
southeast of Marlow - and not to be confused with neighbouring Cookham
Dean and Cookham Rise - is noteworthy as the former home of Stanley
Spencer (1891-1959), one of Britain's greatest - and most eccentric -
artists. The Bible fired Spencer's imagination and many of his paintings
depict biblical tales transposed into his Cookham surroundings -
remarkable, visionary works in which the village is turned into a sort
of earthly paradise. Spencer made his artistic name in the 1920s,
firstly as an official war artist and then for his Resurrection: Cookham
, which attracted rave reviews when it was exhibited in London in 1927.
No one minded much that his brand of Christianity was extremely
unorthodox - he called his religious system the "Church of Me" - but in
the 1930s his reputation temporarily dipped and he took endless critical
flak when his work took an erotic turn. Much of Spencer's most acclaimed
work is displayed at the Tate Britain, in London, but there's a fine
sample here at the Stanley Spencer Gallery (Easter-Oct daily
10.30am-5.30pm; Nov-Easter Sat & Sun 11am-5pm; £1), which occupies the
old Wesleyan Chapel on the High Street. Three prime exhibits are
Listening from Punts, Conversation between Punts and the wonderful (but
unfinished) Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta . The permanent
collection is enhanced by regular exhibitions of Spencer paintings and
the gallery also contains incidental Spencer letters, documents and
memorabilia, including the pram in which he used to wheel his artist's
clobber around the village.
There's an hourly train service from Marlow to Cookham and from the
station it's a pleasant ten-minute walk east across the common to the
Spencer Gallery. Cookham's Bell & Dragon pub , with ancient beams and
ample leather chairs, pulls a good pint and serves decent home-made food.
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