An angel at my table …
This 1934 work is certainly true to Stanley Spencer’s famous remark: “I am on the side of angels and of dirt.” It portrays a dustman, returned home to the arms of his wife. She lifts him up like Christ ascending to heaven, or an ecstatic child, in their front garden.
Modern life is rubbish …
In a career full of offbeat reimaginings of biblical scenes, this is a strikingly strange painting, with its confusion of maternal and adult sexual love. Recalling both the Resurrection and the Adoration, the onlookers offer gifts: a holy trinity from the dustbin – a cabbage leaf, teapot and jam jar.
Critical mass …
Although Spencer is often compared to another English visionary, William Blake, his artistic touchstone was Giotto. His figures have both the volume and stagey otherworldliness of the master’s.
Wonder pants …
Spencer said this painting was like “watching the inside of a sexual experience”. Its unique turn-ons included the wife’s “bliss of union” with her husband’s corduroy trousers.
Included in The Enchanted Garden, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, to 7 October
