Walter Richard Sickert, A.R.A.

Mrs Thelma Cazalet-Keir
Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London, where acquired by the present owner, 2005

London, Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd, Sickert. Centenary Exhibition of Pictures from Private Collections, 14th March - 14th April 1960, cat. no.34;
Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London, Aspects of Modern British & Irish Art, 2004, cat. no.1, illustrated;
Dulwich, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Sickert in Venice, 4th March - 31st May 2009, un-numbered exhibition, illustrated.

Wendy Baron, Sickert, Paintings and Drawings, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2006, cat. no.174.2, illustrated p.272.

Original canvas. There is very minor canvas undulation apparent.There is a very fine, minor horizontal stretcher bar mark along the top edge, but this excepting the work appears in very good overall condition.Ultraviolet light reveals a tiny spot of fluorescence and probable retouching in the extreme upper left hand corner. This has been executed in a very sympathetic manner.Housed in a thick, gilt frame.Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present lot.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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We are grateful to Wendy Baron for her kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

 

Sickert first visited Venice in 1894, beginning what was to become a lasting love affair with a city he came to know as ‘the loveliest city in the world’ (The Artist, ‘The New Life of Whistler’, Fortnightly Review, December 1908, cited in Anna Gruetzner Robins (ed.), Walter Sickert: The Complete Writings on Art, Oxford, 2000, p.182). The exceptionally impressive architecture coupled with the distinctive effect of the soft, Italian light capturing the rippling water had long provided artists with source material and this was no different for Sickert, who was drawn to the city, inspired by the great monuments of San Marco, the Rialto and Santa Maria della Salute, and the opening of the Grand Canal. In 1896 he took a studio at 940 Calle dei Frati, and following the breakdown of his marriage, he threw himself in to his work, fascinated by the juxtaposition of the grandiose facades with the quiet, calm warren of passages and waterways that lay behind, and particularly appealed to his eye for the shabby ordinariness of the everyday life. In the opening years of the 20^th Century his Venetian compositions became tighter in their perspective, and more concentrated, seen clearly in the present work, which relates closely to a preparatory sketch held in the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. The scene sings with rich, vivid colours, forcing the eye to dart from the bright blues of the bottom left, up through the brief flash of leafy green and onto the orange rooftops and beyond. The composition is dominated by the Palazzo Contarini dal Zaffo, known locally as the Palazzo Montecuccoli, a fifteenth-century building in the style of Pietro Lombardo. The Palazzo was bought by the Princesse de Polignac (née Winnaretta Singer) in September 1900 as a wedding present for her husband. A New York socialite and heiress to the Singer sewing machine dynasty, she had married Prince Edmond de Polignac after the failure of her first marriage to a French prince. This proved to be a perfect marriage of convenience, as neither party were hetrosexual, and brought Winnaretta into the heart of the artistic circle of Venice of the period. It is highly probable that Sickert knew the Princess both through his social circle in Venice, and in Paris and Dieppe, and the building remains in the possession of the Polignac family to this day.

Sickert’s Venetian landscapes were amongst his most sought-after works in the early part of the 20^th Century, and were especially popular with his French audience, sold through dealers Bernheim Jeune in Paris. Of the 96 works included in his June 1904 showing at the gallery, 32 were Venetian subjects, with a buying public no doubt drawn to the fresh, Impressionistic handling of the paint of the waterways. Equally popular in London, A Canal, Venice: Palazzo Montecuccoli was originally owned by the author and distinguished politician Mrs Thelma Cazalet-Keir, a leading collector and patron of British art during the first half of the twentieth century.