Dates

• Existence: 31 May 1860 - 22 January 1942

Biography

Walter Sickert was a British artist, originally born in Munich, Germany on 31 May 1860. The Sickert family settled in Britain when Walter was eight years old and later became naturalised.

Walter attended University College School in 1870 and 1871, before transferring to King's College School, where he studied until 1878. In 1881 Walter attended the Slade School and soon after, he became an apprentice to American artist Whistler.

Walter travelled to France in many occasions where he met Degas, who made a big impression on him and influenced his pictorial style.

Walter had an intense interest in urban life and popular culture and over his career held studios in working class areas of London such as Cumberland Market and Camden Town. He was fascinated with the music hall scene, which he considered a mirror of modern life and spent a lot of time in local theatres such as The Bedford. The first major works Walter produced dated from the late 1880s and were all music hall scenes.

In 1888 he joined the New English Art Club, a group of French-influenced realist artists and in 1911 together with a group of contemporary artists influenced by Post-Impressionism and Expressionism, founded the Camden Town Group of British painters. Walter also taught at various art institutions during his career including Westminster School of Art and the East London Group and set up various art schools in London and Manchester.

Walter became President of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1928, post he held until 1930. He became a Royal Academician (RA) in March 1934 but resigned a year later in protest against the Academy’s refusal to support the preservation of Jacob Epstein's sculptural reliefs on the British Medical Association building in the Strand.

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

Found in 3 Collections and/or Records: