After studying with William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri in New York, Nebraska-born Spencer moved to New Hope in 1906. He continued his studies with Daniel Garber and met his future wife, Margaret Fulton, herself an accomplished architect, at the home of William Lathrop. Spencer received early patronage from Duncan Phillips, the celebrated Washington, DC collector. The artist distinguished himself from his New Hope colleagues by making skillful renderings of everyday life in the community, often depicting mills, tenements, and factories of New Hope and surrounding areas. He claimed, “A landscape without a building or figure is a very lonely picture to me.”
