Walter Richard Sickert
(England 1860–1942)
Katie Lawrence at Gatti's
- Other titles:
- Gatti's Hungerford Palace of Varieties: second turn of Katie Lawrence, Second turn of Katie Lawrence at Gatti's Hungerford Varieties; Tom Tinsley in the Chair
- Location
- 19th & 20th c European art
- Further information
Born in Munich of Danish parents, Walter Sickert came to England as a child in 1868. Taught by Whistler and inspired by Degas, whom he knew, he became one of the most influential and prolific British painters of his period. Experimenting with late impressionist and post-impressionist idioms, Sickert forged a personal practice devoted almost entirely to depictions of metropolitan life, some of them squalid. He settled permanently in London in 1905, from which time his studio served as a nerve-centre for the younger 'realist' painters of the Camden Town Group. Sickert's love of urban types, bohemia and the world of variety theatre is apparent in this atmospheric canvas. Katie Lawrence was a knockabout songstress who frequently headlined at Gatti's venue. Despite Sickert's interest in working-class themes his art is far from populist, appealing as it does to sophisticated taste. Daringly, the painter portrays Lawrence as little more than a footlit smudge.
AGNSW Handbook, 1999.
- Year
- circa 1903
- Media
- Painting
- Medium
- oil on canvas mounted on hardboard
- Dimensions
- 84.4 x 99.3cm board; 103.2 x 117.5 x 7.5cm frame
- Signature & date
- Signed l.r., black oil "Sickert". Not dated.
- Credit
- Watson Bequest Fund 1946
- Accession number
- 7772
- Copyright
- © Walter Sickert/DACS. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney
- Provenance
- Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd (England), London/England, Purchased by the AGNSW from Arthur Tooth & Sons 1946
Mrs J.B. Priestley (England), England, possibly Mary ('Jane') Wyndham Lewis, 2nd wife of J.B. (John Boynton) Priestley (1894-1984)
Messrs Wallace (England), England, by 1933, lent to Retrospective exhibition of pictures by W.R. Sickert, A.R.A. at Agnew's 1933, cat.no.33
