Walter Richard Sickert

Co-owned by Bernheim Jeune and Durand-Ruel, Paris
Arthur Tooth and Sons, London
Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London, 1956
The Hon. Peter Samuel, 1957
Hill Samuel
Trustee Savings Bank
Their Sale, Christie's, London, 11th November 1999, lot 32

The architecture of Venice had already proved a brilliant stimulant for Sickert's artistic eye on his first visit there in 1895 (see lot 41). His return in 1900-1901 was to be equally successful, no more clearly illustrated than in his paintings of St Mark's – a subject he had explored previously and which he approached with renewed vigour.

In the present painting, most striking is the unorthodox view he takes. Where previously Sickert had concentrated on the entire facade, such as The Façade of St Mark's, Red Sky at Night (circa 1895-6, Southampton City Art Gallery), here he concentrates on one corner, viewed from the left, slightly askew and seen right up close. In so doing, the building floods the picture space and the sense of its monumentality is emphasised. Sickert adopted this viewpoint in several versions, and the proximity is also reflected in his unprecedented paintings of the four Hellenistic bronze horses of the central façade (The Horses of St Mark's, 1901, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery). The original design of these paintings and the cropping of the image, which was such a significant feature of his late works, is marvellously anticipated here.  

Sickert's paintings of St Mark's and other Venetian scenes at this time display differing stylistic approaches – at times the paint is light and fluid, the colours warm and bright and in others, the handling is heavier and the tones more sombre. In his paintings focussing on St Mark's, Sickert clearly responded to the richness of its colour and the play of light across its façade at differing times of the day. In the present work Sickert applies a palette of vivid, creamy colours – pale blues, pinky greys, and buffs – and simplifies detail and tone in his handling of the paint. Across the foreground is the blurred suggestion of figures which, in contrast to the clarity of the building, recall an out-of-focus photograph, the qualities of which Sickert was aware.

In a letter to his dealer Charles Durand-Ruel written from Venice by Sickert in April 1901, around the time of the present painting, he alludes to a less than commercially successful exhibition of his in Paris. Sickert reassures Durand-Ruel he was moving on from his preference for dark tones and gloomy colours, and in the lighter colour harmony and lucid touch of St Mark's we see this promise superbly realised.

The amateur photographer, Eugene Druet, used the present work as a subject for one of a series of postcards he produced in Paris.  

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