Walter Richard Sickert

Acquired from the artist by David Eccles (later Viscount Eccles)
Acquired by the present owners prior to 1965

London, Browse and Darby, Sickert and the Theatre Exhibition, 26th November - 23rd December 1992, cat. no.24.

Wendy Baron, Sickert: Paintings and Drawings, Yale University Press, New Haven & London 2006, cat. no.50.12.

There are artist's pinholes in the upper corners. The panel appears to be in good overall condition. There are some marks to the paint surface but these all appear inherent to the work. Examination under ultra-violet light reveals some tiny lines of fluorescence under the figure's feet. Held in a gilded composition frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Executed circa 1889-90.

The subject of this painting is probably George Lashwood (1863-1942), a well-known performer whose stage persona was often that of a 'swell' out on the town. Painted from a high but relatively close viewpoint, this painting, like many of the related group of Old Middlesex drawings, suggests Sickert was perhaps using a box close to the left side of the stage, and the use of dramatic lighting and the long shadow cast across the stage help to focus the viewer on the solo artiste in mid-song. Whilst many of Sickert's earlier music hall subjects had placed the viewer in amongst the audience, emphasising the sense of the event and the communal nature of the experience, in the present painting the reduction of the image, removal of almost all extraneous detail, and the simplest of palettes creates a poignancy and stillness that carries a most affecting element of pathos.

A pencil study inscribed 'The Old Middlesex' that is closely related to this painting was sold in these rooms, 18th July 1973, lot 27. Although the performer's costume is slightly different, it is drawn from exactly the same viewpoint as the present painting and employs the same devices of the long shadow stretching away from the figure and the overlapping elipses of the spotlights to define the artiste's place on the space of the stage.

The Middlesex Music Hall was on Drury Lane, on the site now occupied by the New London Theatre, and went through a variety of forms, being originally known as the Mogul Saloon and becoming the Middlesex Music Hall in 1851. Many famous names of the music hall debuted there, including, it is said, Dan Leno. It was reconstructed in 1872, and rebuilt for extra capacity in 1891 and 1911, by which time it could seat almost 3,000. It closed in 1919.

We are grateful to Dr Wendy Baron for her kind assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.