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Overview
The painter Walter Sickert was a man of contradictions: a radical reactionary, a reclusive socialite, a traditionalist and an innovator, a philanderer who believed in the sanctity of marriage, an internationalist grounded in the heart of the English school. In this superb biography, Matthew Sturgis provides the first fully documented account of Sickert’s long and colorful life, drawing on new sources to capture the spirit of a man whose influence remains visible in the work of artists today.
Synopsis
Through his art, writing, wit and teaching, Walter Sickert extended the scope of British art. Sturgis, who has written a biography of Aubrey Beardsley and an account of the English decadence movement of the 1890s, draws on many previously untapped sources to provide a fully documented history of Sickert's life, which stretched from the end of the Victorian era to the beginning of World War II. Sturgis also devotes an appendix to refuting the charges made long after Sickert's death that Sickert was Jack the Ripper. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
The Sunday Times
Matthew Sturgis...brings out Sickert's passion, integrity, and the complex interweaving of his private and public life.
Editorials
Booklist
"A substantial but ever–lively life of the questing British painter Sickert....Sturgis makes short work of Cornwell’s allegations after fully substantiating his portrait of Sickert as a revered artist whose joie de vivre, “rare power of objective vision,” frankness, and intensity revitalized the British figurative tradition."