Bayswater

Noel Spencer was a prolific artist who depicted numerous London scenes. Born and raised in Lancashire, he studied at the Royal College of Art during the 1920s. In a career spanning almost forty years, Spencer taught in Birmingham, Sheffield and Huddersfield. He was Head of Norwich School of Art for nearly twenty years, where his memory has been honoured with the annual Noel Spencer Award for Painting.

Here, Spencer has focused on a view of Princes Square as seen from a window in Leinster Square, Bayswater. Looking south down Garway Road, Porchester Gardens can be seen on the left-hand side. Pedestrians, including two men in suits standing by a car, a woman and a dog and a man in a bright yellow coat can be seen on the street below. The facades of the four and five-storey buildings have been carefully studied and rendered in great detail. A preliminary pencil study for this work, dated 1955, is also in the Museum's collection.

This work is one of five tempera paintings which the artist gave to the Museum in 1981.