In the financially turbulent years following his divorce from Hilda, Spencer came to depend on the sale of uncontroversial landscapes for income, and often expressed resentment about having to do so. Yet the meticulous detail of this work, the way in which he has observed the garden’s contrasting textures and tones, suggests nothing but tender curiosity. In 1944 he wrote, “My landscape painting has enabled me to keep my bearings. It has been my contact with the world, my surroundings taken, my plumb line dropped.” (https://www.1843magazine.com/culture/the-daily/the-passion-of-stanley-spencer)