Walter Sickert

Born in Munich and moved to London at age eight, Sickert first pursued a career as an actor in Henry Irving's company before studying art, an experience that influenced his dramatic compositions.¹

Starting as a pupil of Whistler, Sickert later met Edgar Degas in Paris, whose use of pictorial space and emphasis on drawing had a powerful effect on him, leading him to paint from memory rather than directly from nature.¹

In the late 1880s, Sickert began portraying London music halls. Though denounced as 'ugly and vulgar' by critics, these works announced his recurring interest in urban culture and sexually provocative themes.¹

Between 1894 and 1904, Sickert visited Venice multiple times. He shifted from topography to multiple-figure tableaux, often using prostitutes as models to explore psychological estrangement.¹

Inspired by the 1907 Camden Town murder, Sickert painted a controversial series of nudes. These works combined narrative tone with a documentary realism that was unprecedented in British art.¹

As an influential teacher at the Westminster School of Art and his own school, Rowlandson House, Sickert mentored artists like David Bomberg, significantly impacting British avant-garde art.¹

In 1911, he co-founded the Camden Town Group. Preferring 'the kitchen to the drawing room,' he focused on drab suburban life, becoming a leading figure in British Post-Impressionism.¹

His masterpiece 'Ennui' depicts a psychologically estranged couple in a dingy interior. The work uses heavy impasto and a narrow tonal range to evoke a sense of Victorian narrative and modern boredom.¹

From 1927, Sickert stopped drawing and began painting from photographs. He used a grid system for enlargement, often leaving the pencil lines visible in the finished paintings as a modern technique.¹