Sickert: Paintings - Softcover

BARON, Wendy And SHONE, Richard, Eds.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300053959 ISBN 13: 9780300053951

Publisher: Yale University Press, 1992

Synopsis

Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) is one of the great figures of British painting. He is perhaps most famous for his depictions of the music hall, its artistes, audience and elaborate interiors; and for his vibrant views of Venice and Dieppe. In recent years his later works - portraits and scenes from contemporary theatre - have gained him new admirers.
Sickert's range of subject was enormous and his technical achievement both searching and progressive. Too long regarded as simply a follower of the Impressionists he has now come to be seen to have strong affinities with a wide range of artists - from Hogarth to Keene, from nineteenth-century German illustrators to Rouault and Munch. He embraced formal portraiture and idyllic landscape, controversial domestic scenes (such as Camden Town Murder), and memorable portrayals of public figures, the canals of Venice, the old streets of Dieppe and of England in the 1930s.
There have been numerous exhibitions of Sickert's work since his death but the last full-scale retrospective in London was over thirty years ago. This publication coincides with, and serves as the catalogue of, a major retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. It includes essays on Sickert's artistic context and influence, the history of the music hall, and Sickert's interest in conventional theatre in the 1930s.
Written by the foremost experts on Sickert and his period, this book is a richly illustrated complement to the exhibition, exploring all its themes in detail.

About this title

From Library Journal

It would be an oversimplification to call Sickert the Toulouse-Lautrec of early 20th-century England. His works depicting music halls, urban landscapes, and individuals possess the same vitality his French counterpart captured, yet Sickert has been consistently treated as a bit player in English art history. Now, two new books permit an important reevaluation of his contributions. Documenting 133 paintings, Sickert Paintings proves to be the definitive--to date, at least--exhibition catalog and summary of the artist's oeuvre. The book's texts bring fresh insights in Sickert's observations of English life, while chronologies and remarks by notable contemporaries aid the clear and handsome layout. The illustrations are generally good in capturing the luminous painterly quality of Sickert's works, but an overemphasis on details from larger paintings is somewhat distracting. However, students and scholars receive copious information in a cogent package. Sickert's rich slice-of-life images of London around Camden Town and Mornington Crescent are here reproduced mostly in black and white. Connett's text focuses on Sickert's relation to the artists of the vibrant, but underrated, Camden Town Group. The author's lively narrative produces such blithe phrases as "Walter Sickert: A Born Chameleon" and equally romantic characterizations for members of the group, which included Spencer Gore, Harold Gilman, and Robert Bevan, among others. These actually strengthen her art historical evaluation, and overall her shorter text is more vivid in evoking a particular facet of English art. Both books are appropriate for scholarly consumption and are recommended for specialized collections or large general libraries. --Paula A. Baxter, NYPL
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0300053959
• ISBN 13: 9780300053951
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 365