Walter Sickert

Delve into this authoritative study by curator Emma Chambers, developed in accompaniment to the 2022 Tate Britain exhibition. A comprehensive guide to Walter Sickert's artistic practice and profound legacy in contemporary art.

A beautifully crafted hardback originally released to accompany a major exhibition of one of the central figures in British art, and the first exhibition dedicated to Sickert at Tate since 1960. Whether you're a devoted collector or seeking a sophisticated gift, this premium volume serves equally well as an inspiring read or a striking display piece for your home.

German-born British painter and printmaker Walter Sickert was one of the most significant British artists of the twentieth century. This book provides a fresh look at a fifty-year career in which he forged links between France and Britain and revolutionised traditional genres of painting such as the nude and the conversation piece. The essays by leading Sickert scholars emphasise particular themes in his work such as his links with France, his love of performance and popular culture, and his influence on both his contemporaries and later generations of British artists.

This book details how Sickert transformed the representation of everyday life, with his innovative approach to subject matter, radical compositions and the evocation of the materiality of existence in paint. In addition to exploring the changing nature of his work - from an impressionistic approach in the 1880s to a pioneering use of photography in the 1930s - and how he returned over and over to locations and subjects, including his penetrating self-portraits.

An apprentice of Whistler and close associate of Degas, he engaged with the work of French artists of the time. Sickert in turn influenced many British painters up to the present day.

Sickert's imagination was fuelled by news and current events such as the Camden Town Murders and newspaper photography, but also by popular culture - music halls, the stage, the rise of cinema and celebrity. Featuring over 200 images from the original exhibition and a wide range of essays by scholars, as well as reflections on Sickert's relevance and influence by a selection of contemporary painters including Kaye Donachie and Somaya Critchlow.