Patricia Preece

Patricia Preece, Lady Spencer (22 January 1894 – 19 May 1966), born Ruby Vivian Preece,^[1] was an English artist, associated with the Bloomsbury Group, and the second wife of painter Stanley Spencer, for whom she modelled. It was later discovered that nearly all of the artwork exhibited and sold by Preece was painted by her lifelong lover, Dorothy Hepworth.

As a teenager, in 1911, Preece was involved in the death of dramatist W. S. Gilbert. While swimming in his lake, she lost her footing and called out; the 74-year-old Gilbert dived in to assist her, but he died of a heart attack. She soon adopted the name Patricia and became engaged, but her progressive views displeased her fiancé, who terminated their engagement. In 1918 Preece met Hepworth at the Slade School of Fine Art. After further studies in Paris, the two returned to Britain. Throughout their lives, the gregarious Preece exhibited and sold the shy Hepworth's paintings under her own name, while Preece painted very little herself. The fraud caused the artist Augustus John to declare Preece one of the six greatest women artists in England.

In 1928, Preece and Hepworth moved to Cookham and befriended the artist Stanley Spencer. Spencer became obsessed with the flirtatious Preece, and he showered her with gifts. She persuaded him to divorce his first wife and to sign his house over to her. Preece married Spencer in 1937, but she did not leave Hepworth and refused to have sexual relations with Spencer. She eventually evicted Spencer from the house, and would not grant him a divorce, but continued to receive payments from him. The Preece-Spencer relationship was dramatised in the 1996 Olivier Award-winning play Stanley. After he was knighted in 1959, she insisted on being styled Lady Spencer and claimed a pension as his widow. In later years, Preece traded in antiques.