During World War II, Spencer was employed as an Official War Artist to record shipbuilding in the Scottish town of Port Glasgow, a few miles west of the city of Glasgow.

He completed an elaborate series of paintings on his official theme, but the town also triggered a much more personal response in him. Spencer was struck by the hill on which Port Glasgow cemetery is built, which reminded him of an upturned saucer.

This, in turn, suggested a phrase of John Donne's in which the resurrection is compared to "a king … climbing of the hill of Sion." With this in mind, Spencer proposed a fifty feet wide composition of the resurrection in Port Glasgow cemetery, in which Christ would be shown sitting in judgement, surrounded by angels, with the resurrected below.

In the event, the plan was abandoned in favour of a series of smaller, independent canvases. Resurrection – Hill of Zion shows Christ seated on a low hill, amidst the angels and prophets, whilst the newly risen people can be seen in the background.

Stanley Spencer, Resurrection - The Hill of ZionEstate of Stanley Spencer 2005. All rights reserved, DACS.