Sickert-Pennell-Whistler

WALTER SICKERT
Little Sally Waters.

Lithograph on smooth cream wove paper, 1907. 326x218 mm; 13x8 5/8 inches, full margins. From The Neolith. A very good impression.

Sickert (1860-1942) was Whistler's closest follower during the 1880s and early 1890s. He first met Whistler in May 1879, before Whistler's departure for Venice, and became his unofficial student and assistant in 1882. Along with fellow "pupil" Mortimer Menpes, Sickert helped Whistler print his Venice etchings and proof his lithographs during this time. Despite their friendship during these dozen or more years, as was so often the case with Whistler, there was a falling out ultimately.

Their parting was a result of a libel suit brought against Sickert by Joseph Pennell on account of Sickert's bashing Pennell's use of transfer lithography in an article in the December 1896 Sunday Review. Whistler came to Pennell's defense in the case and at the trial referred to Sickert as, "An insignificant and irresponsible person." Sickert sold his considerable collection of Whistler paintings and prints in 1905, to raise much needed funds.


use of the process called transfer lithography, by which the tusche drawing is made on paper instead of on the lithographic stone. The drawing is then transferred to the stone and printed in the usual way. This method, which is more convenient than working on stone, retains the paper's texture…

Sickert & de fotografie

Gesprekken met hedendaagse kunstenaars: Interview met Peter Weidenbaum


Van iemand die je dus in je gezicht zou smijten dat je alleen maar foto’s naschildert, kan jij alleen maar denken: Dommerik!
 

PW: Inderdaad. Voor mij is Walter Sickert het mooiste voorbeeld van de invloed van de fotografie op de hedendaagse schilderkunst. Deze schilder leefde begin 1900 in Camden Town, een wijk in Londen. Er waren daar veel cinemazalen. 

Hij vond dat die grote afbeeldingen van geschilderde filmscènes veelal méér effect hadden dan de puur academische schilderijen. De invloed van Sickert op de hedendaagse schilderkunst is niet te onderschatten. Hij stelde vast hoe schilders van filmaffiches erin slaagden met grote kleurvlakken toch een bepaalde atmosfeer te scheppen.

Sickert toonde ook heel duidelijk zijn bronmateriaal. Die lijn wordt ook doorgetrokken naar Richter, Tuymans… Vandaag de dag kan je een schilderij niet meer loskoppelen van de fotografie. In de reeks State of mind (zoals de zwart-wit reeks noemt), die ik drie maanden geleden heb afgewerkt, wou ik die verwijzing naar de fotografie extra in de verf zetten. 

Sickert & Whistler

Both Walter Richard Sickert and James McNeill Whistler are associated with British art history and the city of London, although neither artist was born there. The setting for Whistler’s studio is a basement room which Whistler used as his studio in London where the artist had settled in 1859.
One of the acknowledged leaders of late nineteenth-century British Modernism, Whistler was Walter Sickert’s mentor and friend during the early years of Sickert’s artistic career. Sickert attended Whistler’s studio daily to watch and assist him at work, often sketching and painting Whistler’s subjects.
Sickert’s palette, too, was influenced by Whistler, in his choice of subdued, muted colours restricted to a few tones, such as those used here. Whistler’s studio was painted some 18 years after the artists’ falling out and some 12 years after Whistler’s death.

ENTRANCE TO 8 FITZROY STREET, WHISTLER'S STUDIO (Sickert):

(pen and brown ink heightened with white)

JDB werkte in het atelier waar Whistler had gewerkt (Fitzroystreet 8)

Whistler schilder in dit atelier o.a.het Arrangement in Grey and Black, No.

1, beter bekend als Whistler’s mother in 1871. 

“Oscar Wilde heeft eens opgemerkt dat mist in Londen een onbekend verschijnsel was voor dat Whistler het had geschilderd. Het was er natuurlijk vaak genoeg mistig geweest, maar de hoedanigheden van die mist waren gewoon minder opgevallen toen onze manier van kijken nog niet door Whistler doeken was bepaald” (20). De Botton.

AN EYE ON FLANDERS: THE GRAPHIC ART OF JULES DE BRUYCKER © Stephen Goddard, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence,KS 66047

The Great War

JDB woont tijdelijk in de Fitzgerald Avenue 9 dichtbij de Whistler Studio in Fitzroy Street 8. JDB heeft het in zijn brieven over de Fitzroy.