Walter Richard Sickert 1860-1942
10 11/16 x 8 4/16 ins
Whilst Sickert's repertoire of subjects may have gained followers, his radicalism has also gained admirers even from artists whose work is fundamentally different. Frank Auerbach, for example, whilst emphasising that 'there is not the slightest attempt to emulate or follow Sickert or the Camden Town School1, has also written of his admiration for the artist, characterising him as 'an immensely experimental, abstract minded, inventive, systematising draughtsman.2
the late 1880s Sickert began a major series of paintings of music halls. Reflecting an interest in the subject that is to be found in the paintings of both Degas and Manet, the stage, orchestra pit, performers and audiences would swiftly become a central aspect of Sickert's work of the 1890s.
The Bedford Music Hall in Camden Town was built in 1861 and burnt down in 1896 (and so was later referred to as the Old Bedford in order to avoid confusion with its successor, the New Bedford, which Sickert also depicted).
The Old Bedford is characteristic of the type of study that Sickert made on site. It is drawn on a folded sheet of brown paper that may well be wrapping paper and is double the dimensions of the finished work, suggesting that for ease of drawing on site Sickert simply folded it in half.
1. Frank Auerbach, unpublished interview with JH, July 1990
2. Frank Auerbach, unpublished letter to JH, 18 June 1992
Exhibitions
A Century of Drawings, James Hyman Gallery, London, 2 July - 29 August 2003From Life: Radical Figurative Art From Sickert to Bevan, James Hyman Gallery, London, 10 September - 18 October 2003, (cat. 1)