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Download a PDF of the exhibition catalogue - The Scottish Gallery

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In 1934 sickert was elected a Royal academician, it was <strong>the</strong> same year a subscription amongst his friends and followers<br />

was made to enable him to work without financial anxiety – he had been perilously close to bankruptcy. In late November<br />

he signed a three year lease on a house in Broadstairs, st. Peters-in-thanet near Margate. sickert’s art was becoming<br />

more and more photo-based; his subject matter was not conditioned by his geographical location. It was at this time he<br />

did a series <strong>of</strong> pictures based on photographs <strong>of</strong> real life events, including <strong>the</strong> Grand National, a celebrity wedding and<br />

two full length portraits <strong>of</strong> King edward VIII around <strong>the</strong> time <strong>of</strong> his abdication. this landscape <strong>of</strong> Broadstairs, looking<br />

diagonally across a garden fence toward a row <strong>of</strong> trees with a town behind is characteristic <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> work he produced at<br />

this time. <strong>the</strong> subject matter is uncluttered, with an emphasis on <strong>the</strong> contrast between light and shadow empahsised by<br />

<strong>the</strong> dry, thin application <strong>of</strong> paint. this painting will have been made from a photograph and not from direct observation.<br />

By alienating himself from <strong>the</strong> subject (to escape from what Degas referred to as “<strong>the</strong> tyranny <strong>of</strong> nature”) sickert is free<br />

to focus on <strong>the</strong> careful tonal relationships, and <strong>the</strong> application <strong>of</strong> paint on canvas. <strong>the</strong> chalky texture <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> picture,<br />

scrubbed dry onto a coarse surface was typical <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r paintings depicting Bath made in <strong>the</strong> late 1930s. <strong>the</strong> colour<br />

palette is cool and controlled, and suggests summer heat. <strong>the</strong> choice <strong>of</strong> such an uncompromising view is testament to<br />

sickert’s artistic drive to find beauty in <strong>the</strong> urban mundane.<br />

a picture <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> same title was thought to have been recently destroyed in <strong>the</strong> search <strong>of</strong> traces <strong>of</strong> sickert’s DNa<br />

by Patricia Cornell – <strong>the</strong> american author who believes Walter sickert to be <strong>the</strong> infamous murderer Jack <strong>the</strong> Ripper.<br />

80

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