Walter Sickert @ Tate Britain…

Last Saturday afternoon Stuart and I walked down to Tate Britain in London’s glitzy Pimlico to see the Walter Sickert exhibition. 

I like to think of Sickert as an Islington man but in fact it was just his former studio and school that was in the road next to ours, at 1 Highbury Place. 

Sickert was actually born in Germany although he lived all over the place - being influenced by the places he stayed and the people (artists like Whistler and Degas) he met. 

Sickert was chiefly a cosmopolitan and quite eccentric. He often favoured ordinary people and urban scenes as his subjects. Although in later life his work included portraits of well-known personalities - some images derived from press photographs. He is considered a prominent figure in the transition from Impressionism to Modernism. Decades after his death, several researchers and theorists suspected Sickert to have been the London-based serial killer Jack the Ripper, although the theory has largely been dismissed.

The exhibition was a real eye opener. Dark, honest, passionate, and fun. We especially liked his depictions of theatre audiences, unflattering portraits, and London street scenes. 

Deffo worth a visit.