Fine Art
‘Joseph Nissim Levy’ Charles Spencelayh (1865-1958)
Oil on Canvas, signed and dated 1924 lower left. Charles Spencelayh The son of Henry Spencelayh, born 1865 near Rochester, Kent, he studied at the National Art Training School (later renamed the Royal College of Art), where he won a prize for figure drawing. Spencelayh continued his training in Paris and exhibited at the Paris Salon. He showed 30 paintings at the Royal Academy from 1912 until his death in 1958. A founder member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters; elected an honorary member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and Vice-President of the British Watercolour Society. Exhibition venues include the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, the New Gallery and the Alpine Gallery. Spencelayh also exhibited regularly in the provinces with the Royal Society of Artists, Birmingham, the Royal Cambrian Academy, the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Glasgow Institute of Fine Art, the Walker Gallery, Liverpool and Manchester City Art Gallery. He held a one-man show at the Sunderland Art Gallery in 1936.
SIGHT SIZE:
REFERENCE:
H:
36 in:
91.5 cm
W:
30 in:
76 cm
7410
His patrons included Queen Mary, for whom he painted a miniature portrait of George V for Queen Mary’s celebrated Doll House, shown in the Wembley Exhibition of 1924 and now in Windsor Castle. Queen Mary’s and Princess Marie-Louise’s ‘thank you’ letter was one of Spencelayh’s most treasured possessions. Joseph Nissim Levy commissioned this portrait directly from the artist, and it has descended through the family. The work of Charles Spencelayh is represented in the Bradford City Art Gallery, the Tate Gallery, London, Manchester City Art Gallery and the Harris Museum and the Art Gallery, Preston.