Post- 359
SUNDAY Feature ART of Architecture -by
Gautam Shah
Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) was a
British painter and printmaker. He was an
Impressionist and part of the Camden Town
Group of London. Unlike other members of
Camden group, Sickert was famous in his
lifetime. He is considered a prominent figure in
the transition from Impressionism to
Modernism.
In 1883, Sickert travelled to Paris and met
Edgar Degas. He was impressed by the
Degas use of pictorial space. Yet he developed
own style of Impressionism with sober
colouration. Following advice by Degas, he
abandoned ‘the tyranny of nature’ and began
painting in studio relying more on
remembrances or impressions. He painted in
heavy impasto and narrow tonal range, but
disliked the use thick oil-paints -‘as the most
un-decorative matter in the world’.
Sickert's renderings were denounced as ugly
and vulgar, and choice of subject matter was
deplored as too garish for art. Sickert showed
recurring interest in sexually provocative
themes. Sickert was a cosmopolitan and
eccentric, who often favoured ordinary people
and urban scenes as his subjects. His work
includes portraits of well-known personalities
and in later years images formed from own
and press photographs. His range of subjects
includes domestic interiors, portraits,
town scapes and theatrical subjects. In later
part of life he developed many eccentric habits
and became a celebrity with stunts. He
changed his name and appearance.
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