Lot 845
WALTER RICHARD SICKERT, ARA (1860-1942)
MORNINGTON CRESCENT
Signed and inscribed with title, pen and brown ink with black crayon
34.5 x 24cm.
Provenance: London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd (label on new backboard)
* Dr Wendy Baron observes that this is almost certainly an independent drawing which does not relate specifically to any known painting. It was drawn at 6 Mornington Crescent, where Sickert lodged and painted in rooms on the ground floor from autumn 1905 onwards. In spring 1907 he was able to rent the first floor rooms to use as a studio. He kept his Mornington Crescent studio rooms until around 1912 but tended to use his many other Camden Town painting studios more from 1908-09 onwards.
Stylistically, the drawing can most convincingly be dated c.1909, when Sickert drew and painted several isolated studies of the standing nude, often holding the metal footrail of a bed. At that period Sickert used broken dashes of pen and ink and rough hatching to emulate the broken crusty touch of his contemporary oil paintings and to convey the effect of reflected light breaking down the barriers between figure and furniture.
The drawing probably represents the model called Sally, painted and drawn by Sickert in several works of c.1909. Her messy hair, and the way she holds her head (bent forward), are similar.
We are very grateful to Dr. Wendy Baron for compiling this footnote.
