Oil and pencil on paper, squared for transfer Spencer blocks in tone as he experiments with his composition. Music, like literature was an essential part of Spencer’s life and many of his works have the rhythms and tones that suggest music is present. The shape to the right has become the ivy covered cottage ‘The Nest’, which belonged to Spencer’s grandmother. The men going past ‘The Nest’ carrying their ladders worked for Fairchilds, the builder in Cookham, and were a late addition to the composition, their crossed ladders suggesting the impending crucifixion.