The Ceremony to commemorate 'The Great Escape' brought to mind Spencer's portrait of one of the heroes of The Wooden Horse escape - Eric Williams, a painting allocated to the Gallery in 2007 having been accepted by the Government in lieu of Inheritance tax.
Eric Williams was famous for his wartime exploits in the RAF when as a prisoner of war in the notorious Stalag Luft 3 he planned a daring escape, digging a tunnel and using a vaulting horse to cover the debris in the exercise yard. This led to the so-called ‘Wooden Horse’ escape, which featured in his book and a film of the same name. The original commission was for a pencil sketch but Spencer was dissatisfied with it, and for the same fee, painted this oil instead. It took about a fortnight: most time was spent on the stitches of the sitter’s sweater. Williams has been described as ‘bearded, stocky and bronzed’. Writing to his niece Daphne Spencer wrote, ‘I have been to Dartmouth to do a small painting of …Eric Williams. …He looks a ‘heluva’ chap.
Eric Williams was famous for his wartime exploits in the RAF when as a prisoner of war in the notorious Stalag Luft 3 he planned a daring escape, digging a tunnel and using a vaulting horse to cover the debris in the exercise yard. This led to the so-called ‘Wooden Horse’ escape, which featured in his book and a film of the same name. The original commission was for a pencil sketch but Spencer was dissatisfied with it, and for the same fee, painted this oil instead. It took about a fortnight: most time was spent on the stitches of the sitter’s sweater. Williams has been described as ‘bearded, stocky and bronzed’. Writing to his niece Daphne Spencer wrote, ‘I have been to Dartmouth to do a small painting of …Eric Williams. …He looks a ‘heluva’ chap.