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Published: 02 September 2010
by DAN CARRIER

IT was a life-threatening childhood illness that first brought Walter Sickert to London. The German-born painter was aged just five when he was diagnosed with a  condition called fistula – abnormal connection between two organs – and his parents decided to call on the expertise of doctors based at St Mark’s hospital on the City Road. 

A successful operation, followed by months of careful convalescence under the watchful eye of his great aunt Anne Sheepshanks, was never forgotten: the dedication in curing him gave Sickert a sentimental attachment to Islington. He would return time and again to the borough – to live, work and play – and when he died in 1942, Sickert left the contents of his last studio, in the Gloucestershire village of Bathampton, to the Islington Library. 

This collection of personal effects, letters, sketches and paintings forms the basis of a new exhibition that sheds light on Britain’s greatest Impressionist painter.

His largesse to the area was already well-documented, explains curator Mark Aston. In 1932, he had donated a painting to the director of Sadler’s Wells, Lilian Bayliss, to auction. He had long had an association with the theatre – before becoming an established painter, he had worked as a jobbing actor, gaining minor roles in numerous plays, and had performed at the theatre in A Midsummer Nights Dream in the 1880s.

“He lived and worked in Islington for many years,” says Mr Aston. “He had a series of studios across the borough, and would draw on local landmarks such as Collins Music Hall on Islington Green for inspiration.”

And while Sickert’s work as a leading member of the Camden Town group of artists is well known – many of his pictures have been on permanent display at Tate Britain – the artefacts left to the library shed much greater light on his personal life and working practices.

“They include original oils he had worked on, and numerous sketches,” says Mr Aston. “Many were used as the basis for bigger paintings and show the development of his work.”

They also include art by others: he had been given pieces over the years from famous friends, some tantalisingly anonymous, and the collection demonstrates his family’s innate talent. 

His father, Oswald, and his brother Bernard both dabbled at the easel and the collection includes their efforts.

There are sketches, too, which show the beginnings of the style he became famous for. 

Sickert’s studies of the theatre and music halls of the area are documented, but there is also a collection of work he did in Dieppe. His third wife, Therese Les Sore, was also a keen painter and they shared a love of circuses and the music hall – preliminary works and ideas are on show, allowing the viewer to track how Sickert created the masterpieces that made his name. 

Other items shed light on his private life, including many letters – although some are indecipherable as they are written in high German, the language of his youth. 

“They offer a snapshot of his social life,” says Mr Aston.

Sickert used to keep company with some of the period’s iconic artists – friends with Oscar Wilde, he also became a protégé of the famed Parisian artist and chronicler Edgar Degas. Their friendship was vital to his own development.

“He was impressed by the French Impressionists,” says Mr Aston. “The work he began doing with the Camden Town group was his translation of that French movement.”

Other trips abroad further shaped his work. 

One voyage to Venice, also chronicled among the collection on display, saw Sickert trapped inside a seedy hotel as the weather set in. Unable to set up an easel outside, he painted inside instead. 

It set the tone for his style of drab interiors that became the hallmarks of his Camden Town paintings that featured dark bedsits and dirty boarding houses.

• From Munich to Highbury: the Walter Sickert Family Collection in Islington is at The Islington Museum, 245 St John Street, Islington, from July 30-November 27. Admission free