Unity Spencer

{{short description|British artist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Unity Spencer | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 24 May 1930 | birth_place = [[Hampstead]], London, England | death_date = 18 October 2017 | death_place = | education = | alma mater = | occupation = Artist | known for = | partner = Leslie Lambert | children = 1 | parents = [[Stanley Spencer]]<br /> [[Hilda Carline]] | relations = | website = }} '''Unity Spencer''' (24 May 1930 – 18 October 2017) was a British artist. She was the daughter of artists [[Stanley Spencer]] and [[Hilda Carline]].

==Biography== Unity Spencer was born on 24 May 1930 at her parents’ and grandparents’ home at 47 [[Downshire Hill]] in [[Hampstead]], London, the second daughter of [[Stanley Spencer]] and his wife [[Hilda Carline]], both artists.<ref name="guardian">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/nov/23/unity-spencer-obituary|title=Unity Spencer obituary|first=Andrew|last=Lambirth|date=23 November 2017|newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=17 December 2017 |via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref> She was educated at the [[Badminton School]], [[Wimbledon College of Arts|Wimbledon School of Art]] and the [[Slade School of Fine Art]].<ref name="guardian"/> Following the break-up of the Spencers' marriage by the mid-1930s, Unity lived with her mother, while her elder sister, Shirin, was sent to live with a relative, and the sisters grew up apart.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018-02-04/why-stanley-spencer-tore-apart-his-family-for-a-lesbian-muse| title=Why Stanley Spencer tore apart his family for a lesbian muse| author=Michael Hodges|website=[[Radio Times]]| date=4 February 2018}}</ref> She had one-person shows at [[Lauderdale]] House in Highgate in 1993, the Boundary Gallery in [[St John's Wood]] in 2001, and the [[Fine Art Society]] in [[Bond Street]] in 2015.<ref name="guardian"/>

In 1961, she met Leslie Lambert (died 1971), and they had a son in 1963, but they never married.<ref name="guardian"/> In the last eighteen months of her life, she moved to live in [[Cowbridge]], south Wales, with her son John and sister Shirin Spencer.<ref name="maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk">{{cite web|author= Will Taylor|url=https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/gallery/cookhams/123749/stanley-spencer-s-daughter-unity-laid-to-rest-in-cookham.html|title=Stanley Spencer's daughter, Unity, laid to rest in Cookham|work=Maidenhead Advertiser|date=11 November 2017|access-date=17 December 2017}}</ref> A BBC documentary, ''Stanley and His Daughters'', shown after Unity's death, included interviews with both sisters in which they talked about their childhood and the decision to move in together.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/599e63fa-0821-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5|title=Stanley and His Daughters, BBC4 — the colourful life of Stanley Spencer|author=Suzi Feay|website=Financial Times|date=2 February 2018|access-date=5 February 2018}}</ref>

Spencer died of kidney failure on 18 October 2017.<ref name="guardian"/><ref name="maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk"/> She was buried in [[Cookham]], Berkshire, close to her mother.<ref name="maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk"/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Unity}} [[Category:1930 births]] [[Category:2017 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century English women artists]] [[Category:21st-century English women artists]] [[Category:Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art]] [[Category:Alumni of Wimbledon College of Arts]] [[Category:Artists from the London Borough of Camden]] [[Category:Carline family]] [[Category:English women painters]] [[Category:People educated at Badminton School]] [[Category:People from Hampstead]]