To hide my lack of blogging , I'm recycling some of my assessed articles from last term - this is a review of Sickert's Camden Nudes at London's Courtauld Gallery.In summary, I'd recommend a visit. The Courtauld is tucked away behind Somerset House and is a beautiful building packed with works by Gauguin, Cezanne and many other well known artists. And it's free for students (and everyone else on a Monday till 2pm).
London’s Courtauld Institute is home to scores of innocent Renaissance ladies, finely dressed wives and a virginal Eve.
The Courtauld is currently showing Walter Sickert’s Camden Town Nudes, an eye raising departure from its more traditional exhibits.
The ornately framed oils, pastels and sketches have been curated into one compact, windowless room, which suits the artist’s shadowy tones.
Viewed as a whole, Sickert’s murky snapshots are a muddle of sordid sexuality and feminine elegance.
But look closer and be startled by his forensic eye for detail.
Sickert flouted the prim Victorian sexual codes, which ruled London into the early 1900s, attracting a lot of attention in the process.
While impressionists depicted the new bourgeoisie in idyllic countryside, Sickert scratched away the veneer of high society by painting its darker side.
His prostitutes’ expensive shoes and ladylike bonnets, are flung on the floor, or found amongst crumpled bed sheets, in seedy bed-sits.
It’s hard not to suspect that secrets are lurking beneath the bedclothes and under the floorboards.
In one painting, a finely suited gentleman sits on the edge of a bed in the foreground, head bowed, a naked woman sprawled behind him.
The woman may be sleeping peacefully, if her neck wasn’t twisted at such an awkward angle.
Is the man’s head bowed in adulterous guilt, or could it be murder?
Sickert’s provocative approach becomes all the more apparent in his famous ‘Camden Murder’ paintings.
Shown together here for the first time since 1911, these four controversial pieces are likely to be the exhibition’s major draw.
Based upon the murder of Camden prostitute Emily Dimmock in 1907, Sickert’s ‘Murder’ paintings have led to much speculation linking him to Jack the Ripper.
Whether Sickert painted clues into paintings such as ‘Jack the Ripper’s Bedroom,’ is impossible to know.
Seeing these graphic works in the flesh though, it’s easy to understand why crime author Patricia Cornwell and others have spent huge amounts of time and money investigating Sickert’s intentions.
The ‘Murder’ paintings pose a lot of questions, but answer none, except that Sickert seems to have been infatuated with the women he painted.
Monet, Degas and Cézanne painted the lighter side of society, but Sickert depicted his prostitutes with just as much grace and poise.
No wonder then, that his creations appalled those who first saw them – Sickert places his prostitutes on pedestals, portraying their femininity and fragility over their reputation.
Even a gore-swamped, Hirst-numbed generation of art fans will find it hard to remain unaffected by Sickert’s naked honesty and chilling suggestiveness.
Camden Nudes is showing until January 20 at the Courtauld Gallery. All pictures courtesy of www.courtauld.ac.uk
