numerous other paintings were intended for the church-house. these included the two paintings spencer submitted for the 1935 royal academy summer exhibition, "saint francis and the birds" and "the dustman" or "the lovers". the royal academy rejected both pictures, and spencer resigned from the academy in protest. the rejection of the saint francis picture was particularly galling for spencer as the model for the figure of saint francis had been his own father, wearing his own dressing gown and slippers, which spencer had intended to hang in the nave of the church-house.