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In 1993, the Phoenix Gallery, Lavenham, curated an exhibition entitled "Spencer Pryse: Three Generations of Artists", featuring Emma Cameron's work alongside that of her mother, Tessa Spencer Pryse R.B.A. (born 1939), and grandfather, Gerald Spencer Pryse (1882-1956).
The Labour Party still sells reproductions of a collection of posters made in the 1920s by the artist Gerald Spencer Pryse. These dark, dramatic images have titles evocative of the period between the wars: 'Homeless', 'Workless', 'Yesterday the Trenches', 'Today Unemployed', 'Tomorrow when Labour Rules'. He was closely associated with Beatrice and Sydney Webb and the Fabian Society; his posters for the London Underground reflect his sympathy for the victims of the Depression. Gerald Spencer Pryse was born in 1882, it is said into an aristocratic family. He went to study in Paris and London, quickly establishing himself as a brilliant draughtsman with a particular talent for lithography. He became a founder member of the influential Senefelder Club with Joseph Pennell as the first president. Brangwyn, A. S. Hartrick, Muirhead Bone, Ethel Gabain and Ernest Jackson were among the members. With Jackon he started the magazine 'Neolith' printed entirely by stone lithography at the Central School. He preferred to draw scenes directly onto the stone. Horse racing, the hunting field, the boxing ring or the boat race, all became the basis for figure compositions, in which he used the interplay of light and shadow to great effect. On occasion a hint of colour is introduced, but only as a counterpart to a predominantly black drawing. This period before the 1914 war was dominated by the great tonal draughtsmen, Brangwyn, Joseph Pennell, Muirhead Bone, James McBey and others. Colour was left to the French! His circle of friends by now included the writer, E. Nesbit, who based one of her characters upon him, and Margot Asquith, wife of the Prime Minister. Summoned to lunch at No. 10, he was given a dangerous mission to deliver despatches from the Belgian Government to the French HQ in Bordeaux, through a northern France already over-run by the German Cavalry. He recounted his exploits in a book, 'Four Days', published after the war by the Bodley Head. Commissioned as a Captain in the Queen Victoria's Rifles, he was twice wounded in action, losing the sight of one eye. This did not deter him from making some 40 or 50 lithographs of the war, using stones supplied by the Queen of the Belgians. They show lines of cavalry cantering through a ruined village, while refugees stream in the opposite direction; Sikh soldiers in turbans resting by the roadside; gunners ducking with their hands over their ears as a French Howitzer blasts off; the stretcher bearers carrying the wounded. These are the unique records of the First World War by a serving soldier, and are now in the Imperial War Museum. Spencer Pryse was awarded the Military Cross, the Croix de Guerre and the Order of the Crown of Belgium. After the war Spencer Pryse was given some very large commissions by the Empire Marketing Board to show the people, customs and industries of the Commonwealth in a series of colour lithographed posters. He was sent to Nigeria and the Gold Coast where he painted one hundred gouache and watercolour sketches of the Emirs, their wives, the attendants and people at work. There were perceptive portraits of the Emir Katsina, the bodyguards, and an imposing sketch of Captain Sumah of the steamship 'Gongola' posed against the bridge. Pryse was in his element making direct drawings of the people he met on his travels. The landscape did not come 'alive' unless there were groups of people to be observed. From these initial sketches it was planned to make a number of very large colour lithographs (50" x 37"), drawn according to the Illustrated London News, onto stone. Here precise detail becomes sketchy; did Pryse draw the black key stone? Did he draw the subsequent colour plates or stones? Current practice would have been for litho copy artists to have re-drawn the images on to plate or stone; artists were not generally welcome by the craft unions. In any event, work on this scale took quite some time to complete, with a separate stone or plate for each colour. Meanwhile there were rumblings of discontent from the board at the number of nubile young ladies featuring in the pictures, culminating in some 19 being withdrawn and three being banned outright. The Press loved it; "Prudes ban Nudes" ran the headline. Fortunately Queen Mary thought it was a nonsense and bought a set for the Sandringham School. Nevertheless, Spencer Pryse had to bring a court action to secure payment, which left a sour taste to a brilliant career and a brave venture into mass communication. James Laver, curator of the V & A Print Room, wrote in 1962 about the black and white lithographs acquired by the museum. "I think that it is upon these lithographs that his fame will largely rest. His boldness of handling, matched by a delicate feeling for the possibilities of the medium, place these works for all time among the triumphs of the lithographer's art." Bernard Cheese R.E.
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