1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sickert, Walter Richard

SICKERT, WALTER RICHARD (1860–), British painter, was born at Munich, May 31 1860, the son of the painter, Oswald Adalbert Sickert, a well-known contributor to Fliegende Blätter, and grandson of Johannes Sickert of Altona, painter and lithographer. Walter Sickert studied painting and etching under Whistler in Tite Street, Chelsea, but in 1885, following the advice of Degas, began to paint from drawings instead of from nature. His first work on these lines, "Mammoth Comique," was published in the Yellow Book. The dramatic quality of his work owes much to his study of the technique of wood engraving and to his interest in the work of John Leech and Charles Keene, while he was also much influenced by Wilhelm Busch (see 4.869) and Adolf Oberländer (see 19.946). His subject pictures include "Mamma mia po' areta" (1903), "Noctes Ambrosianae" (1906), "The Camden Town Murder" (1906), "Army and Navy" (1913), "Ennui" (1914), "Sinn Fein" (1915), "Pierrots on Brighton Beach at Night" (1915), "Baccarat at Dieppe" (1920) and "Supper at the Casino" (1920). He also produced some architectural paintings, including "Hotel Royal, Dieppe" (1900), "Miracoli" (1903), "Lansdowne Crescent" (1917) and "Pulteney Bridge" (1918), while his best known landscapes are "The Happy Valley" (1919) and "The Priory of Auberville" (1919). Examples of his work are in the British Museum, Tate Gallery, Bibliothèque Nationale, the Luxemburg and the art galleries of Manchester and Johannesburg. He became a member of the Société du Salon d'Automne, the Society of Twelve and the International Society, and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers and Engravers. As a teacher he exercised a strong influence over the younger school of British painters.