Walter Richard Sickert

Dieppe – The Artists – Sickert, Walter Richard – Part 2

This page forms part of a series of pages dedicated to the many artists who painted in Dieppe. A full list of all the artists with a link to their works can be found at the bottom of this page.

Walter Richard Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert

Walter Richard Sickert (1860 – 1942) was a British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the mid- and late 20th century.

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 images derived from press photographs. He is considered a prominent figure in the transition from Impressionism to Modernism.

Sickert was born in Munich, Germany, on 31 May 1860, the eldest son of Oswald Sickert, a Danish-German artist, and his wife, Eleanor Louisa Henry, who was an illegitimate daughter of the British astronomer Richard Sheepshanks. In 1868, following the German annexation of Schleswig-Holstein, the family settled in Britain, where Oswald’s work had been recommended by Freiherrin Rebecca von Kreusser to Ralph Nicholson Wornum, who was Keeper of the National Gallery at the time.

The family obtained British nationality. The young Sickert was sent to University College School from 1870 to 1871, before transferring to King’s College School, where he studied until the age of 18. Though he was the son and grandson of painters, he first sought a career as an actor; he appeared in small parts in Sir Henry Irving’s company, before taking up the study of art in 1881. After less than a year’s attendance at the Slade School, Sickert left to become a pupil of and etching assistant to James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Sickert’s earliest paintings were small tonal studies painted alla prima from nature after Whistler’s example.

In 1883 he travelled to Paris and met Edgar Degas, whose use of pictorial space and emphasis on drawing would have a powerful effect on Sickert’s work. He developed a personal version of Impressionism, favouring sombre colouration.

In the late 1880s he spent much of his time in France, especially in Dieppe, which he first visited in mid-1885, and where his mistress, and possibly his illegitimate son, lived.

Just before the First World War he championed the avant-garde artists Lucien Pissarro, Jacob Epstein, Augustus John and Wyndham Lewis. At the same time Sickert founded, with other artists, the Camden Town Group of British painters, named from the district of London in which he lived.

After the death of his second wife in 1920, Sickert relocated to Dieppe, where he painted scenes of casinos and cafe life until his return to London in 1922. In 1924, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA).

Sickert painted an informal portrait of Winston Churchill in about 1927. Churchill’s wife Clementine introduced him to Sickert, who had been a friend of her family. The two men got along so well that Churchill, whose hobby was painting, wrote to his wife that “He is really giving me a new lease of life as a painter.”

Sickert took a keen interest in the crimes of Jack the Ripper and believed he had lodged in a room used by the notorious serial killer. He had been told this by his landlady, who suspected a previous lodger. Sickert did a painting of the room and titled it Jack the Ripper’s Bedroom. It shows a dark, melancholy room with most details obscured.

Although for over 80 years there was no mention of Sickert being a suspect in the Ripper crimes, in the 1970s authors began to explore the idea that Sickert was Jack the Ripper or his accomplice.

Sickert died in Bath, Somerset in 1942, at the age of 81.

Click here to read more about this British artist on Wikipedia.

NOTE: This is PART 2 of a lot of Sickert’s works for Dieppe.

PART 1 deals with his works from 1884 to 1903. Click here to read it.
PART 2 (this article) deals with his works from 1904 to 1920.
PART 3 deals with the Dieppe suburbs (Envermeu, Martin Eglise, Neuville, Sainte Marguerite Sur Mer and Torqueville). Click here to read it.

NOTE: This is a very art-rich page. There are 46 paintings and therefore the page will load slowly!

NOTE: Click on any image below for a bigger version (no new window will open).

1904- Walter Richard Sickert -  Dieppe, Corner of the Rue St-Catherine
1904- Walter Richard Sickert – Dieppe, Corner of the Rue St-Catherine
1906- Walter Richard Sickert -  A Street in Dieppe
1906- Walter Richard Sickert – A Street in Dieppe
1906- Walter Richard Sickert -  La Rue Pecquet, towards St-Jacques, Dieppe
1906- Walter Richard Sickert – La Rue Pecquet, towards St-Jacques, Dieppe
1906- Walter Richard Sickert -  La rue Pecquet
1906- Walter Richard Sickert – La rue Pecquet
1906- Walter Richard Sickert - The Print Shop, Dieppe
1906- Walter Richard Sickert – The Print Shop, Dieppe
1907- Walter Richard Sickert -  Pollet Church, Dieppe
1907- Walter Richard Sickert – Pollet Church, Dieppe
1907- Walter Richard Sickert -  Road to the Casino, Dieppe
1907- Walter Richard Sickert – Road to the Casino, Dieppe
1907- Walter Richard Sickert -  Street corner, Dieppe
1907- Walter Richard Sickert – Street corner, Dieppe
1909- Walter Richard Sickert -  Dieppe, The Rue Notre-Dame
1909- Walter Richard Sickert – Dieppe, The Rue Notre-Dame
1910- Walter Richard Sickert -  The Arcades, Dieppe, Study for the elephant Poster
1910- Walter Richard Sickert – The Arcades, Dieppe, Study for the elephant Poster
1910- Walter Richard Sickert -  Saint-Remy
1910- Walter Richard Sickert – Saint-Remy

TODAY: The Saint-Remy church is still standing and can be visited.

1911- Walter Richard Sickert - Celebrations, Dieppe
1911- Walter Richard Sickert – Celebrations, Dieppe
1911- Walter Richard Sickert - The Basket Shop, Rue St-Jean, Dieppe, France
1911- Walter Richard Sickert – The Basket Shop, Rue St-Jean, Dieppe, France
1912- Walter Richard Sickert - St-Remy
1912- Walter Richard Sickert – St-Remy
1913- Walter Richard Sickert - St.-Remy, apse of the church
1913- Walter Richard Sickert – St.-Remy, apse of the church
1913- Walter Richard Sickert - The Obelisk at Arques, Eaulne Valley, Dieppe
1913- Walter Richard Sickert – The Obelisk at Arques, Eaulne Valley, Dieppe

NOTE: The Eaulne Valley lies some 17 kilometers from Dieppe.

1914- Walter Richard Sickert - The Cafe Suisse, under the Arcades, Dieppe
1914- Walter Richard Sickert – The Cafe Suisse, under the Arcades, Dieppe
1914- Walter Richard Sickert - Rue Aguado, Dieppe
1914- Walter Richard Sickert – Rue Aguado, Dieppe
1914- Walter Richard Sickert - The Cafe Suisse (Cafe des Arcades, Dieppe, France)
1914- Walter Richard Sickert – The Cafe Suisse (Cafe des Arcades, Dieppe, France)
1914- Walter Richard Sickert - The Elder Tree, Dieppe
1914- Walter Richard Sickert – The Elder Tree, Dieppe
1919- Walter Richard Sickert - Dieppe
1919- Walter Richard Sickert – Dieppe
1919- Walter Richard Sickert - Farmhouse, Dieppe
1919- Walter Richard Sickert – Farmhouse, Dieppe
1919- Walter Richard Sickert - A street at Dieppe
1919- Walter Richard Sickert – A street at Dieppe
1920- Walter Richard Sickert - At the end of the Quai, Dieppe
1920- Walter Richard Sickert – At the end of the Quai, Dieppe
1920- Walter Richard Sickert - Beach Scene, Dieppe Sands
1920- Walter Richard Sickert – Beach Scene, Dieppe Sands
1920- Walter Richard Sickert - Cafe Interior, Baccarat, Dieppe
1920- Walter Richard Sickert – Cafe Interior, Baccarat, Dieppe
1920- Walter Richard Sickert - Dieppe Races
1920- Walter Richard Sickert – Dieppe Races
1920- Walter Richard Sickert - Vernet's Dieppe
1920- Walter Richard Sickert – Vernet’s Dieppe

NOTE: Joseph Vernet was a French painter.

????- Walter Richard Sickert - A street in Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert – A street in Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert - Fishmarket Arcades
????- Walter Richard Sickert – Fishmarket Arcades
????- Walter Richard Sickert - Cafe des Tribunaux, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert – Cafe des Tribunaux, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert - Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert – Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert - The Rosette, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert – The Rosette, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert - The rue Pecquet, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert – The rue Pecquet, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert - The rue Pecquet
????- Walter Richard Sickert – The rue Pecquet
????- Walter Richard Sickert - The Grand Duquesne, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert – The Grand Duquesne, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert - The Cliffs of the Pollet and the workshop of the painter Haquette
????- Walter Richard Sickert – The Cliffs of the Pollet and the workshop of the painter Haquette
????- Walter Richard Sickert - St-Remy, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert – St-Remy, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert - Street Scene in Dieppe with Statue of the Grand Duquesene
????- Walter Richard Sickert – Street Scene in Dieppe with Statue of the Grand Duquesene
????- Walter Richard Sickert -  Street Scene, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert – Street Scene, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert - The Arcades, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert – The Arcades, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert - The Handcart, Rue St-Jean, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert – The Handcart, Rue St-Jean, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert -The Haunted House, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert -The Haunted House, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert - The Little Tea Shop, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert – The Little Tea Shop, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert - The street lantern, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert – The street lantern, Dieppe
????- Walter Richard Sickert - View of St-Jacques, corner of Rue Duquesne
????- Walter Richard Sickert – View of St-Jacques, corner of Rue Duquesne

Walter Sickert painted mostly in Dieppe and its surroundings when he was in France. He did paint in Paris and one other place in France (a link “⇠” to his works will appear below when published):

Dieppe in Normandy was a popular place for artists to come and apply their art. Here is a list, non exhaustive, of the artists that painted in Dieppe.

A link (“⇠”) to the artist’s works will appear when published (a “*” indicates that the artist did not work directly in Dieppe, instead worked in nearby villages):

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