Walter Sickert

In 1895, writing home to his friend the painter Philip Wilson Steer, Sickert declared: ‘Venice is really first-rate for work.’ Notwithstanding the eminence of painted Venice, ranging through Canaletto, Whistler and Monet, all of whom Sickert admired, it was the rich character of the place itself that appealed to him above all. He found his own subjects but did not demure from treating famous motifs around the Rialto Bridge and St Mark’s Basilica. He made five visits to the city in summer 1895, 1896, spring 1900, the first half of 1901, and 1903–1904. The final visit lasted about eight months.

Sickert was a keen admirer of Canaletto. In 1915, he evoked the Venetian artist’s etching plates and instructed students ‘to turn [them] over with a reverent hand by night and by day’: ‘When he has learnt the severe lessons that are held in their limpid waters and their tranquil skies, in the calm brilliance of the square white towers that tell on his fair plates like a marsh-mallow lozenge or a slice of cream cheese, he will understand why Piranesi belongs to the stuffy and expensive furniture of the over-dressed.’ As early as this print from 1902, Sickert demonstrated a keen preference for clarity of line over the obfuscation of “velvety blacks”. The Ponte Rialto and the Palazzo Camerlenghi, Venice is an early example of the extended hatching sequences and overall lightness of treatment that characterised all Sickert’s mature printmaking. Here the tone of the paper serves as the highlight, while printed lines frequently produce form from inside rather than by outlining and filling in.