Walter Sickert: A Biography - Hardcover

Sturgis, Matthew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002570831 ISBN 13: 9780002570831

Publisher: HarperCollins UK, 2005

Synopsis

The painter Walter Sickert was a man of contradictions: a radical reactionary, a reclusive socialite, a traditionalist and an innovator, a philanderer who believed in the sanctity of marriage, an internationalist grounded in the heart of the English school. In this superb biography, Matthew Sturgis provides the first fully documented account of Sickert’s long and colorful life, drawing on new sources to capture the spirit of a man whose influence remains visible in the work of artists today.

About this title

About the Author:

Matthew Sturgis writes regularly for The Times Literary Supplement and is the author of Aubrey Beardsley.

From Booklist:

Sturgis proved to be an exceptional artist's biographer in Aubrey Beardsley (1999), and he now presents a substantial but ever-lively life of the questing British painter Sickert (1860-1942), whom Sturgis succinctly describes as "a great man and a great artist." Charming and mischievous, Sickert enjoyed a happy childhood, a stint as an actor that inspired his scandalous music-hall paintings, and marriage to a woman willing to support him even after they divorced because of his many affairs. Sickert's notorious sexual escapades run the gamut from romantic to pragmatic to farcical. Profoundly inspired by James McNeil Whistler and Degas, Sickert became a leader among radical British painters, an influential art critic, and a teacher. Sturgis' glowing portrait stands in stark opposition to crime writer Patricia Cornwell's extravagant claim in Portrait of a Killer (2002) that Sickert was Jack the Ripper. Indeed, Sturgis makes short work of Cornwell's allegations after fully substantiating his portrait of Sickert as a revered artist whose joie de vivre, "rare power of objective vision," frankness, and intensity revitalized the British figurative tradition. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0002570831
• ISBN 13: 9780002570831
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 784