Walter Sickert - Seminar Presentation

Biography

Walter Richard Sickert was born in Munich on May 31^st 1860 to a Danish-German father and English mother, although the family moved to England in 1868 and Sickert is predominantly thought of as an English artist and would go on to form the Camden Town artists group in 1911 and is considered a prominent figure in the transition from Impressionism to Modernism and also an influence on British styles of avant-garde art in the 20^th century.
He was a cosmopolitan and thought of as an eccentric who’s primary artistic focus was on urban scenes, particularly the working class.

Training

He studied at several schools, although usually for only very brief periods of time.
Although he was the son and grandson of artists, he first sought a career in acting before pursuing artistic study in 1881. This is perhaps an early indication of his flair for the dramatic.

After less than a year’s attendance at the Slade, he became a pupil and assistant to James Abbot McNeill Whistler.  Sickert’s first works were tonal paintings following Whistlers example.

In 1883 he met Edgar Degas who imparted very useful information to the young Sickert and became a big influence on his work. Sickert developed a more sombre version of impressionistic style Degas employed, with a more grounded, earthy palette. Degas advised Sickert to paint in the studio, working from reference, drawings and memory in efforts to escape ‘the tyranny of nature’

In 1888 Sickert joined the New English Art Club. One of the paintings he exhibited portrayed a well-known music hall singer of the era, Katie Lawrence. This sparked a controversy described as being ‘more heated than any other surrounding an English painting in the late 19^th century’. The work was denounced as ugly and vulgar as at the time female performers were popularly viewed as being morally akin to prostitutes. This Sickert’s first foray into sexually provocative and controversial subject matter that would be a recurring theme throughout his career.

Between 1894 and 1904 Sickert made a number of visits to Venice, initially focusing on the city’s architecture and environments. During his final painting trip in 1903-1904 he was forced indoors by the weather. This is where he developed his distinctive approach to multiple figure tableau and indoor environments which he would further explore on return to Britain. The models are believed to have been prostitutes, who Sickert may have had personal relations with.

Due to Sickert’s fascination with working class urban culture, Sickert acquired two studios in East London. One in Cumberland Market in 1890 and Camden Town in 1905. The latter allowed Sickert close proximity to an event that would become a driving force for his next series of work, which would in turn secure his prominence in the British realist movement. On September 11^th 1907, Emily Dimmock, a prostitute cheating on her partner was murdered in her home after sex with a man. Her partner returned home in the evening to find her nude in bed with her throat slit. The case was widely sensationalised in the press. Sickert had been painting mournful images of nude women no beds, and continued to do so, now deliberately challenging public perceptions. He created a series of four works collectively entitled ‘The Camden Town Murder’ – each featured a nude woman on a bed with a clothed male upright. None show any violence whatsoever, but evoke a feeling of sad thoughtfulness consistent with his previous work. The works all actually were exhibited with completely different titles, and were purposely renamed to incite controversy which would in turn ensure attention.

Jack the Ripper

Sickert’s fascination extended beyond the local murder. He took a keen interest in the crimes of Jack the Ripper and at one point believed to have stayed in the same room of a flat previously used by the killer. He painted the room, and titled the work ‘Jack the Rippers Bedroom’ – showing a dark, melancholy room with most details obscured with suggestive forms in the darkness.

During Sickert’s lifetime there was no mention of him having any direct relations to the killer in modern times he would become a suspect in the Ripper crimes, with some believing him to be Jack the Ripper himself.

In 2002, Crime novelist Patricia Cornwell spent more than £2 million on 31 of the artist’s paintings, writings and his desk. She believed Sickert’s congenital anomaly of his penis would be a motivation. She is thought to have destroyed one of his works in search of evidence, which has sparked fury throughout the art world, however she denies having done this. She has however found that DNA on a letter attributed to the Ripper and on a letter written by Sickert belong to only one percent of the population. The letters also had matching watermarks, however the legitimacy of those Ripper letters has been questioned.

Influence on Freud

It’s possible that Freud may have read Sickert’s 1910 essay on ‘The Naked and the Nude’ which called for a more inventive and realistic approach to the artistic nude. Sickert used examples of Degas who has ‘incessantly chosen to draw figures from unaccustomed points of view’ and argued that the surroundings should be as important as the figure.

Freud’s depiction of the human form was twisted, foreshortened and unidealised – recalling Sickert’s frank treatment of nude women splayed on white sheets in a series of images culminating with L’affaire de Camden Town in 1909.

Both attempted not to romanticise the human form but instead tackle it head on and honestly. Trying more to capture the essence of the form and its surroundings than to capture the personality of the model.

Sickert considered the weight of the paint an important factor in his work, often working wet and often finishing work in just two sittings. The idea was to build physical and believable mass on the figures displayed. This reliance on the physical nature of paint is something Freud would employ throughout his work.

Influence on Bacon

Curator Richard Morphet identified Bacon in particular as ‘a direct heir to Sickert in many ways’

Bacon himself was never one to acknowledge anyone who may be considered an influence besides the Old Masters and his particular favourite artist, Pablo Picasso. However recent research shows Bacon was enthusiastic about the work of Sickert and extended to him acquiring the work ‘Granby Street’ painted around 1912 from Sickert’s private collection. This work would later be owned by Lucien Freud.

Both artists painted in a similar fashion, using rough canvases and employing thick, visible brush strokes.

[Second Bacon Slide]

Art historian Rebecca Daniels suggests that Bacon’s standing figure in his 1950 Painting was directly informed by the Sickert Drawing Camden Town nude: Conversation from around 1909, a work relating to the Camden Town Murder series that Bacon would certainly have been aware of. Bacon often worked from photographs or other source images and Bacons work may have been directly informed by Sickert's drawing. The key piece of information being the dramatic shadow stretching from the upright figures body. The shadow in Bacon’s image is almost identical.

Influence on my work
The importance Sickert puts on the weight and physical nature of flesh on a subject is something I’ve always tried to remain conscious of. Ensuring the figure feels grounded instead of hollow and flat. High contrast being an important factor in representing this. I try to be as honest as I can about the figure.

[Second Influence Slide]

Something else that Sickert relies heavily on is his inclusion of the surroundings in his life work and the relationship it has with the subject. This gives the figure a sense of place and realism to the piece as a whole. Incorporating the furniture or materials in direct contact with the figure and how it may affect the model is crucial in creating a believable image.

Death

In 1924 he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy. In 1926 he suffered what is thought to have been a stroke. He also married his third wife in 1926, following the death of his second wife six years prior.

The following year he abandoned his first name and chose to be known as Richard Sickert.

In 1927 he met and became good friends with Winston Churchill. Sickert encouraged Churchill’s hobby of painting and also painted an informal portrait of the future Prime Minister.

In his later years his subject matter changed and he essentially stopped drawing and instead worked from snapshots taken by his third wife, or from news photographs. The images were squared up for enlargement and transferred to the canvas, with the grids still clearly visible in the finished work – this was seen by his contemporaries as evidence of his decline.

After a long and successful career, Sickert died in Bath, Somerset in 1942, at the age of 81. He had been married three times.