Walter Sickert

Shortly after his return to London in 1905, Sickert made a group of pastels that is unique in his oeuvre. At no other time did he make such sustained use of the medium. They were made in his studio at the top of 8 Fitzroy Street, and Réveil was one of four pastels shown together at Sickert’s Bernheim Jeune exhibitions in 1907 and 1909. These followed four other pastels that he exhibited at the Salon d’automne in 1905. A pastel called Cocotte de Soho [Baron 2006, no. 238] establishes London as the mise-en-scène. The iron-framed bed in Réveil, distinguishable by its crossbar and glistening bedknobs, appears in several other Fitzroy Street nudes that have come to be regarded as pinnacles among Sickert’s artistic achievements.

Baron describes Sickert at this period ‘using pastel as an alternative to oil paint’: the results ‘in content, in scale, and in finish are as significant as any of his contemporary oil paintings.’ Degas was the undisputed champion and technical master of pastel, and Sickert briefly owned an outstanding example of his efforts called The Green Dancer (1877–79, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional, Madrid), but Sickert’s treatment of the medium was personal and unaffected by his friend’s work. His colour selection alone was inimitable, and the figure in Réveil is modelled in contrasting hues of yellow ochre, dark pink, warm grey and olive green. Areas of rich, low toned colour invention are silhouetted by firm outlines drawn in black, sometimes thickly as with the right hip and the breasts. Colour was applied in nervous broken touches, and the composition apparently developed rapidly; a pentimento suggests that the right arm previously sat forwards of the hip and rested in the model’s lap, before being relegated to a position out of sight behind the figure.

When sold by Christie’s in 1994, this work was given the additional title ‘Early Morning’. The reverse of the picture is inscribed ‘Réveil’ and this is how it was exhibited at Bernheim in 1907 and 1909. The figure is modelled in colours that suggest the tranquil light of dawn, and the domesticity of the scene suggests an innocent awakening in contrast to nudes such as Cocotte de Soho, in which Sickert began to develop subtexts about poverty and prostitution.