Sickert in Venice

Sickert was one of the most important British artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Pupil of Whistler, friend of Degas, Renoir and Manet, he introduced Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to a younger generation of British painters. Venice inspired some of Sickert’s most ravishing Impressionist work and it was where he remade his artistic identity, working through ideas that would prepare him as the godfather of Modern British art. Experimenting with combinations of figures in interiors, evocative mood studies in which narrative was suppressed, Sickert discovered the formula that would be the basis of Camden Town painting, inspiring a new generation of painters. Unbelievably, his paintings of Venice have never been shown together. This stunning book, written by Robert Upstone and published to accompany the exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery in March 2009, corrects this oversight, encompassing 60 of these paintings and drawings, split thematically: ‘Views and Vistas’ and ‘Portraits, Figures and Nudes’. Robert Upstone is Curator of Modern British Art at Tate Britain.