The Resurrection, Port Glasgow

The Resurrection, Port Glasgow is an oil on canvas painting that was created between 1947 and 1950 by English painter Stanley Spencer. The painting measures 214.6 x 665.5 centimetres and is in the collection of the National Gallery,an art museum in London.

The Resurrection, Port Glasgow is set in a cemetery located in Port Glasgow, a town in Scotland. The painting shows the resurrection or anastasis, Christian's belief that at the end of the world every human being who has ever lived will come back to life. On the lefts side of the painting, there is a gang of Glaswegians who have collectively thrown the lid from their grave. People are climbing out of their graves, raising their hands in heaven in ecstatic gratitude while others are greeting each other.

The figures in the painting sit comfortably within the painting's bound and blend politely forward so that they don't lapse the edge of the canvas. As a professional war artist during World War II, Stanley was in Port Glasgow town to paint the shipyards while at work. This is the last work in the series of 8 paintings with the Resurrection theme.

The inspiration for these paintings came to Stanley in 943–4 while he was working on the shipyard paintings at Port Glasgow. During his walks in the town, the artist was chancing on a hillside cemetery and was prompted to start several drawings for a large painting of the Resurrection, which Stanley envisaged as occurring in the cemetery and the resurrected people climbing the hill at the cemetery, which became Sion Hill. The shipyard town and its people were there to seek redemption. As it was very difficult to paint a single large picture, the artist used the paintings in a series of pictures related to one another, each with 3 or 5 panels and separate existence - although all drawings could, if circumstances allowed, be eventually combined.

Throughout his painting career, Stanley repeatedly returned to the Resurrection subject in the paintings that became hugely popular both commercially and critically. Resurrection, Cookham is one of these popular Resurrection themed paintings by Stanely. The painting is set in the terrains of the Holy Trinity Church, located on Cookham. It shows Stanley's family and friends from Hampstead and Cookham and other people emerging from graves while figures of God, saints and Christ are watching them.