Walter Sickert was born in Munich to a Danish father and Anglo-Irish mother; the family moved to England in 1868. An early career on the stage under the name Mr Nemo was abandoned after four years in favour of painting and he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. As a pupil and assistant to Whistler he learnt the art of etching, as well as a subtle tonal approach to painting that he was to draw on throughout his life. The influence of Degas, whom he met in 1883, was greater, bringing him into contact with the modern movement in France and forcing him to see the restrictions of contemporary art in England. From the late 1880s he regularly visited Dieppe, and later Venice, where the architectural views formed his principal subject. In England, he was drawn to theatres and to vaudeville, which combined his love of drama with a feeling for the tawdriness of urban interiors. An outspoken and forceful protagonist for painting, Sickert became the leader of a group of urban realist painters who gathered in his studio in Fitzroy Street, the nucleus of which was to become the Camden Town Group, named after the district of London in which he lived. They became renowned for their depiction of the seedy London world of this run-down area. Female nudes, couples in bedrooms and domestic scenes in front parlours dominate Sickert's painting of this period. An important teacher (one of whose pupils was Sir Winston Churchill), both Sickert's early and late work - based on photography and newspapers - have influenced successive generations of painters, particularly those artists grouped as 'School of London' (Auerbach, Bacon, Kitaj, Kossoff and Freud). As a printmaker Sickert produced over 266 prints, comprising etchings, engravings, drypoint, lithographs and a mixture of different media. He was ‘taught’ by the American artist, James McNeil Whistler, and following in his example drew directly on the plate in the same way as he might draw in a sketchbook.

Further reading:
Lillian Browse, Sickert, Rupert Hart-Davis, London 1960
Wendy Baron, Sickert, Phaidon, London 1973
Ruth Bromberg, Walter Sickert Prints, Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2000

 

Glossary

  • Contemporary

    Existing or coming into being at the same period; of today or of the present. The term that designates art being made today.

  • Drypoint

    An intaglio printing process where the lines are scored directly into the plate with a sharp needle, which can be used much like a pen. The line leaves a deposit of metal in its wake known as a burr, which when printed holds a small deposit of ink and gives the drypoint line a characteristic softness of tone. Its disadvantage is that such plates wear out quickly, so editions are usually limited to 50 or fewer prints. Drypoint is often combined with other printing techniques.

  • Etching

    An intaglio process whereby a metal plate (normally copper, zinc or steel) is covered with an acid-resistant layer of rosin mixed with wax. With a sharp point, the artist draws through this ground to reveal the plate beneath. The plate is then placed in an acid bath (a water and acid solution) and the acid bites into the metal plate where the drawn lines have exposed it. The waxy ground is cleaned off and the plate is covered in ink and then wiped clean, so that ink is retained only in the etched lines. The plate can then be printed through an etching press. The strength of the etched lines depends on the length of time the plate is left in the acid bath.

  • Painting

    Work of art made with paint on a surface. Often the surface, also called a support, is a tightly stretched piece of canvas, paper or a wooden panel. Painting involves a wide range of techniques and materials, along with the artist's intellectual concerns effecting the content of a work.

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  • Art Project