Walter Richard Sickert, A.R.A.

Leicester Galleries, London
Robert Haines, Australia
Sale, Christie’s London, 21st May 1965, lot 77, where acquired by John Christopherson
Belgrave Gallery, London
Offer Waterman Fine Art, London, where acquired by the previous owner and thence gifted to the present owner

Wendy Baron, Sickert: Paintings and Drawings, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2006, cat. no.270.3, illustrated p.323.

Original canvas, the canvas appears sound. There is a small area of uneveness along the extreme left vertical edge towards the centre, possibly a result of the stretcher. There are some areas of reticulation in places, only visible upon extremely close inspection. There is a light layer of surface dust. Subject to the above the work is in excellent overall condition. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals small points of retouching in all four corners, as well as a small area along the lower horizontal edge and a further small area along the left vertical edge. The work is float mounted within a simple silver painted wood frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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‘The nude has taken on with time some of the qualities of an examination subject, with time a series of crammers, not all intelligent, have overlaid the subject with receipts, short-cuts and panaceas. An inconsistent and prurient puritanism has succeeded in evolving an ideal which it seeks to dignify by calling it the Nude, with a capital “n,” and placing it in opposition to the naked… The modern flood of representations of the vacuous images dignified by the name of the Nude, represents an intellectual and artistic bankruptcy that cannot but be considered degrading …Perhaps the chief source of pleasure in the aspect of a nude is that it is in the nature of a gleam – a gleam of light and warmth and life. And that it should appear thus, it should be set in surroundings of drapery or other contrasting surfaces...’ (Walter Richard Sickert, ‘The Naked and the Nude,’ The New Age, 21st July 1910, pp.276–7).

Walter Sickert’s paintings produced between 1905 and 1913 of the naked female form, set within the dingy interiors of several North London lodgings, are today recognized as amongst the most shocking, modern and innovative compositions of his oeuvre. Seeking to strip away the stagnant and outmoded artistic conventions which surrounded the female nude, the syrupy, idealistic and austere depictions that had risen to prominence in high art circles in the 19^th Century, Sickert chose the nude as his vehicle to reaffirm his status as a leading proponent of the avant-garde. They became his subject of choice to stir up and revitalise what he felt was an artistic scene in London that had drifted into convention and stagnation during his time away in Europe in the previous years.

Sickert’s nudes are uncompromisingly realist. The body is presented starkly, not distanced through allegory, romanticism, or by removing any sort of context or setting. The figures are depicted on unmade industrially produced iron beds, a symbol of working class life during this period, in uncompromising positions, hair pinned up practically, with props and features that ground the scene in a contemporary urban setting. There are pervasive connotations of prostitution, and often the viewer is placed in the uncomfortable position of customer or voyeur, at the end of the bed or, in this case, perched on the corner of a tattered striped couch. Here we look upon a woman casually reading a newspaper, her form articulated using Sickert’s expressive and unflinching brushwork, her presence fleshy, weighty and physical. Her reflection is visible in the large cheval glass, mirrors being a prop which Sickert used in several of his interior nudes. The window which shows the London skyline is uncovered, allowing a beam of light to illuminate the scene, piercing the otherwise dark and seedy tableau. Painted in 1905 Nude before a Mirror, Fitzroy Street is one of Sickert’s earliest compositions to tackle a subject which would for him prove to be one of the most fruitful themes of his career, allowing him not only to redefine a traditional genre, but also to assert himself as a leading proponent of modern painting.