Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942)

Sickert was born in Munich to a Danish father (also a painter) and an Anglo-Irish mother. After a short-lived career on the stage, he studied for a year at the Slade School (1881), before becoming James McNeill Whistler’s studio assistant. In 1883 he went to Paris and met Degas, by whom he was profoundly influenced. Sickert was a frequent visitor to Dieppe, and was resident there from1899 to 1905, and again from 1919 to 1922. He also visited and worked in Venice frequently between 1895 and 1904.

From 1905 Sickert was based in Fitzroy Street in London, and became a key figure in British art. He was instrumental in the formation of the Fitzroy Street Group (1907), the Allied Artists’ Association (1908), the Camden Town Group (1911), and the London Group (1913). He was also a member of the New English Art Club and the Society of British Artists. He taught at several private art schools, as well as at Westminster School of Art. Sickert also wrote widely on art, and was a prolific printmaker.