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Artworks
Walter Sickert
Théâtre de Montmartre, 1906, c.Black and white chalk on paper23.5 x 30 cm (mounted image)
9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inCopyright The ArtistAs Wendy Baron has noted, this drawing was mistitled by Sickert as the 'Théâtre de Montparnasse'. It actually depicts the Théâtre de Montmatre. Shortly after he became an Associate of...As Wendy Baron has noted, this drawing was mistitled by Sickert as the 'Théâtre de Montparnasse'. It actually depicts the Théâtre de Montmatre. Shortly after he became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1924, Sickert began signing and inscribing any work of his which came to hand (both drawings belonging to him and those that others brought to him). Having recently dropped his former name, ‘Walter’, in favour of his middle name ‘Richard’, the signature reads ‘Rd. St. A.R.A.’. Sickert’s misidentification of the subject points to an understandable lapse in the artist’s memory, given that twenty years had passed between the drawing being made and its inscription.
This drawing is closely related to the oil painting Théâtre de Montmartre (1906, Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge) (fig. 1). Both works depict lower-level seats at the back of the auditorium (fig. 2); spindly colonettes of wrought iron support the gallery above and provide a distinctive pattern of uprights. Where the oil painting is more generously populated with people filling both the front and back rows, this drawing depicts only three or four figures along the back row. It was perhaps a quiet weekday matinee during which Sickert made this drawing. (Following the practice of his friend Edgar Degas, he was well accustomed to making life drawings at the theatre and continued to do so until the 1920s.)
In his letters to William Rothenstein dating from autumn 1906, Sickert wrote of the Parisian music halls. He specifically mentioned the Montmartre theatre: 'I want another fortnight here to finish 4 or 5 pictures as good as Noctes Ambrosianae, only red and blue places, instead of black ones. The Eldorado, the Gaieté Rochechouart, the théâtre de Montmartre.' The Théâtre de Montmartre was located at 7 rue Coustou and survives as the Théâtre de l'Atelier.Provenance
Mr Barkworth
With Abbott & Holder, London, 1992
Private Collection, UK
At Bonhams, London, 18 March 2009, lot 15
Private Collection, LondonExhibitions
2021, London, Piano Nobile, Sickert: The Theatre of Life, 24 Sept. - 17 Dec. 2021, ex. cat.