Dense with figures, the scene depicts a dustman returning home after a day at work. All eyes are trained on the returning laborer, who has been lifted up by his wife and clasped tightly in her arms. Some neighbors stand and stare, mouths agape; others offer him bits of rubbish on their knees. Posed like a biblical scene, the painting reflects Spencer’s faith in objects that are apparently inconsequential. He once explained that these pieces of rubbish are tokens of home life that deserve resurrection. “What astonishes me is what people throw away; these things were bits of the lives of people to whom they belonged and express their characters.” This was one of the paintings that was rejected by the Royal Academy. In a letter to Hilda, Spencer likened the work to “watching and experiencing the inside of a sexual experience. They are all in a state of anticipation and gratitude to each other.” It exemplifies his unorthodox view of marriage: “they in the dustman painting are super-married, all of them, all of them infinitely married to all,” he wrote. (https://www.1843magazine.com/culture/the-daily/the-passion-of-stanley-spencer)