Distortion and Stanley's Reaction to It

Describing her time with Stanley in the 1930s, Patricia Preece suggested that after the distasteful series of nudes he had ‘forced’ upon her, an obsession with ugliness grew in him. From making the body (her body) totally unattractive and unseductive to normal eyes he went on to paint ‘sex pictures [where] the figures were often deformed and with an imbecile or lunatic stare’. ¹ She was describing here ‘The Adorations’ series and, in particular, ‘The Beatitudes of Love’. She went on:

I thought the figures caricatures, willfully distorted and made ugly for the fun of it. Many other critics agreed with my opinion. Such stuff couldn’t be taken seriously, they said. It was too grotesque. ²