Hertingfordbury, Hertfordshire, circa 1907-08
Spencer Frederick Gore was born in Epsom and trained at the Slade School of Fine Art (1896-1899), where his contemporaries included Harold Gilman, Augustus John, and Wyndham Lewis.
In 1904, whilst visiting Dieppe, he was introduced to Walter Sickert, and the two would go on to form a lifelong friendship which led to Gore becoming a member of Sickert’s Fitzroy Street Group and, in 1911, to co-found the Camden Town Group.
Gore painted a broad range of subjects, from cityscapes and landscapes to portraits and everyday scenes. Sickert inspired him to take an interest in quotidian subject matters – the two often visited Guildford music hall together, and shared a studio space, sketching nudes and examples of everyday urban life.
Gore was also influenced by the Post-Impressionists, particularly Cézanne and Gauguin, and became associated with the more progressive artists working in Britain at the time. In 1914 he caught pneumonia as a result of painting en plein air in Richmond Park for months at a time and died, aged 36.