Midlife crisis

STANLEY SPENCER (1891–1959) was married twice. Nothing unusual about that. The problem for Spencer was that he wanted to be married to both women at the same time.

The conventional version of the story goes like this. In 1929, after four years of marriage to Hilda (neé Carline) and two children, Spencer suddenly fell under the spell of Patricia Preece. She seemed urbane, worldly and positively glamorous next to Hilda, whose attractions were intense idealism and religious devotion—although, as a Christian Scientist, she was not