The Work of Late Sickert 1927-42
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Material Memory: The Work of Late Sickert 1927-42 Volume I Merlin Seller (MSt) PhD Art History University of East Anglia School of Art, Media and American Studies September 2016 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, and quotation or extract must include full attribution. Name: Merlin Seller Reg. No: 100060872 School: Art, Media and American Studies (AMA) Thesis Title: “Material Memory: The Work of Late Sickert 1927-42” I certify that the total word count in this thesis (including bibliography and footnotes) is 88,281 words 2 Abstract This thesis argues that late Sickert was as significant and complex as the Sickert of Camden Town, and explores the richness of the historically specific ways a major British artist’s hitherto neglected corpus functioned. In particular, I investigate the mediation of time and material memory in Sickert's paintings of 1927-42. These works mix responses to contemporary press photography with Victorian imagery from a century earlier at a time when both were loaded with problematic political and cultural meanings. Late Sickert appropriated both past and contemporary mass culture, but I stress the importance of the material conversion of memory. The thesis argues that in his work 'time' is played with in various material ways – from speed to delay and from the time of historiography to the time of painting itself. Spectacle and remembrance were critically negotiated in the space where the materiality of paint meets the different temporal qualities of its source images. These paintings used the material thingness of paint to reflect sceptically on narratives of Englishness in the 1930s. 3 Contents 5 List of Illustrations 10 Acknowledgements 11 Introduction Section 1 65 Chapter 1: Material Memory of the Land 122 Chapter 2: Touching the Victorian 177 Chapter 3: Posthumous Modernism Section 2 233 Chapter 4: Painting in Flight 280 Chapter 5: The Stilled Image 342 Conclusion 356 Bibliography 4 List of Illustrations Figure 1: Walter Sickert, Temple Bar 1940 (oil on canvas) Figure 2: Walter Sickert, What Shall we do for the Rent? 1908 (oil on canvas) Figure 3: Photo source page from Cornwell, designed to illustrate the transparency of Sickert's art in describing his 'victims' Figure 4: Spirit photograph, James Coates 1872 Figure 5: Walter Sickert, The Idyll 1930-2 (oil on canvas) Figure 6: Walter Sickert, Barnet Fair 1930 (oil on canvas) Figure 7: Ford Model A Tudor Saloon Advertisement, in Reginald Wellbye, Picturesque Touring Areas in the British Isles 1930 Figure 8: Jean D’Ylen, “Shell for the utmost horse power,” c.1926 (Lithographic Poster) Figure 9: Walter Sickert, On Her Majesty's Service 1930-1 (oil on canvas, col.) Figure 10: Walter R. Sickert, An Expensive Half Sovereign 1931 (oil on canvas, col.) Figure 11: F. C. Herrick, General Transport Poster, 1923, advertising Motor Coach Tours by Charabanc. Figure 12: Walter R. Sickert, Figures in Woodland 1935 (oil on canvas) Figure 13: Walter Sickert, As You Like It - A Theatrical Incident 1937-8 (oil and canvas) Figure 14: Walter Sickert, La Ci Darem La Mano - Don Giovanni 1937 (oil on canvas) Figure 15: Walter Sickert, The Standard Theatre Shoreditch 1844 1936 (oil on canvas) Figure 16: Walter Sickert, Hamlet 1930 (oil on canvas) 5 Figure 17: Walter Sickert opening exhibition of the students of Bath June 1939. Islington Archives Figure 18: Sickert in his studio with Lessore, 1938 Figure 19: Walter Sickert, Portrait of Painters Grandmother Anne Sheepshanks of Tavistock Place London and London Road Reading (1931-2) (oil on canvas) Figure 20: Walter Sickert, The Holocaust 1937 (oil on canvas) Figure 21: Walter Sickert, The Private View 1930 (oil on canvas) Figure 22: Walter Sickert, The Young Englishman 1933-4 (oil on canvas) Figure 23: Walter Sickert, The Seducer 1928-30 (oil on canvas) Figure 24: Walter Sickert, Summer Lightning 1931-2 (oil on canvas) Figure 25: Rex Whistler, The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats 1926-7 (mural) Figure 26: Rex Whistler, The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats 1926-7 [Detail] Figure 27: John Gilbert, “The Unexpected Rencontre,” published in The Illustrated London News (Tate Gallery Archives, London, wood engraving) Figure 28: “Click! Went the ‘Kodak,’” advertisement in Punch, 30th May 1928 Figure 29: Paul Nash, Landscape of the Megaliths 1937 (colour lithograph) Figure 30: Walter Sickert, The Woman's Sphere 1931-2 (oil on canvas) Figure 31: Walter Sickert, The Wave 1931-2 (oil on canvas) Figure 32: “The modern hiker (in familiar uniform) meets the Olden Time ghost,” in Punch 1932 Figure 33: Walter Sickert, The Gardener's Daughter 1932-3 (oil on canvas) Figure 34: Frank Stone, The Gardener's Daughter 1850 (oil on canvas) Figure 35: Walter Sickert, Chagford Churchyard 1916 (oil on canvas) 6 Figure 36: Walter Sickert, Portrait of Painter’s Godmother Anne Sheepshanks of Tavistock Place London and London Road Reading 1931-2 (oil on canvas) Figure 37: Walter Sickert, Queen Victoria and Grandson 1934-6 (oil on canvas) Figure 38: Walter Sickert, Portrait of Degas in 1885 1928 (oil on canvas) Figure 39: Anonymous photographer (Barres), Edgar Degas(Profile) carte de visite, Dieppe c.1884 (photograph) Figure 40: Walter Sickert, The Raising of Lazarus 1929-32 (oil on canvas) Figure 41: Precedent photographic montage, Islington Family Archives Figure 42: Walter Sickert's Lay-figure, Bath Spa University Figure 43: Augustus John, Viscount D’Abernon 1927-31 Figure 44: Rembrandt, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Deijman, 1656 (oil on canvas, fragment) Figure 45: The equipment used for x-radiography at the National Gallery during the 1930s Figure 46: Bosch, Christ Mocked (NG 4744), Panel, 73.5 x 59.1cm Figure 47: Walter Sickert, The Raising of Lazarus 1929-32 (oil on wall-paper) Figure 48: Walter Sickert, Miss Earhart’s Arrival 1932 (oil on canvas) Figure 49: Walter Sickert, Tichborne Claimant c.1930 (oil on canvas) Figure 50: Walter Sickert, Baron Aloisi 1936 (oil on canvas) Figure 51: Tullio Crali, Bombardamento-aereo 1932 (oil on canvas) Figure 52: C.R.W. Nevinson, War in the Air, 1918 (oil on canvas) Figure 53: John Turnbull, Air Fight, 1919 (oil on canvas) Figure 54: Frank R. Paul, Air Wonder Stories, no. 1 (1929), oil on board. 7 Figure 55: “Aerial Gas Attack,” front cover, Illustrated London News, 19 November 1932. Figure 56: Empire Air Mail Scheme, advertisement, poster c. 1938. Figure 57: Advertisement, poster for Imperial Airways, 1932. Figure 58: Anon., stock photograph, Imperial Airways’ Heracles at Croydon Airport 1933. Figure 59: Amelia Earhart, press glamour shot, 1932 Figure 60: Amelia Earhart, press glamour shot, 1932 Figure 61: ‘Mr EDEN SAYS ‘GOODBYE,’ The Daily Express 19th August 1935 article Figure 62: Front page [detail], Daily Sketch, 23 May 1932 Figure 63: Front page, Daily Mirror, 23 May 1932. Figure 64: [Detail] Daily Sketch, 31 May 1932. Figure 65: “Airport in the Atlantic,” front cover, Illustrated London News, 19 November 1935. Figure 66: Walter Sickert, Gallery at the Old Mogul 1906 (oil on canvas) Figure 67: John Sloan, Movies, Five Cents 1907 (oil on canvas) Figure 68: Malcolm Drummond, In the Cinema 1913 (oil on canvas) Figure 69: Walter Sickert, High Steppers 1938-9 (oil on canvas) Figure 70: Walter Sickert, Jack and Jill 1937-8 (oil on canvas) Figure 71: Anonymous photographer, Promotional Card, Bullets or Ballots 1936 (photographic print on card, 8x10) Figure 72: William Roberts, The Cinema 1920 (oil on canvas) Figure 73: Edward Hopper, New York Movie 1939 (oil on canvas) Figure 74: Film stills, Bullets or Ballots promotional trailer, 1936 Figure 75: Film Still, Alfred Hitchcock Murder! 1930 Figure 76: Walter Sickert, La Louve 1932 (oil on canvas) Figure 77: John Singer Sargent, Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth 1889 (oil on canvas) 8 Figure 78: Walter Sickert, A Conversation Piece at Aintree 1929- 30 (oil on canvas) Figure 79: Still, The Grand National 1924 1924 News Reel, held in the British Pathé’s archives Figure 80: Stills, The Grand National 1924 1924 News Reel, held in the British Pathé’s archives Figure 81: 'Photograph of George V and his racing manager, beside the painting upon which it was based', Daily Express 23 Dec 1930 Figure 82: Walter Sickert, H.M. King Edward VIII 1936 Figure 83: Still from Edward’s first broadcast as King, the Pathé Gazette news reel, 1936 Figure 84: Walter Sickert, The Duke of Windsor 1936-7 Figure 85: Still, newsreel, King Edward VIII addresses the nation, British Pathé 1936 9 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, David Peters Corbett, whose insight has been invaluable for my growth as a writer, and whose patient criticism and understanding has guided me through both hard times and success. His generous support and keen awareness of my strengths and weaknesses has helped me learn more about myself as a person, and proved invaluable to the completion of this thesis. I equally owe my partner, Charlotte Farmer, my profound gratitude and heartfelt thanks for her patience, her optimism and her energy. Her selfless support and motivation is a profound kindness which every day I can only strive to reciprocate. When doubts cloud my mind she has always been there to see me and accept me as I truly am, and to push me in my forgetfulness to remember what is important. I would also like to thank Francesca Bove, whose support has been incredible, dependable and deeply generous. I count myself a better person if even a modicum of her bravery and dedication has rubbed off on me in the three years I have worked beside her.