After so long with not really being able to see friends, it was lovely to have a friend come to stay with me at the beginning of December. We spent the Saturday in Manchester visiting the Christmas Markets and developing a habit of drinking coffee in posh hotels. On the Sunday we headed over to Liverpool to visit the Sickert Exhibition at the Walker Gallery.
I hadn’t been to the Walker Gallery before so was quite keen to have a general look round as well as seeing the exhibition.
The origins of the gallery date back to 1819 when local philanthropist, William Roscoe, had financial difficulties and was forced to sell his art collection. A group of friends purchased part of the collection in order to keep the paintings together and to prevent them from leaving the area.
A purpose-built gallery opened in 1843. Over the next few decades various museums and libraries were opened, Acts of Parliament were passed, and exhibitions were held. Between 1871 and 1910 about 150 artworks were purchased in what was the first example of a public body buying works of art for display in museums and galleries.
In 1873 Liverpool Mayor and brewery owner, Andrew Barclay Walker, offered to set up a gallery in his name to commemorate his term as Mayor. The Walker Gallery opened in 1877. In 1999 it underwent refurbishment and re-opened in 2002. The collection is impressive and contains works by Van Gogh, Seurat, Degas, Monet, Rubens, Ford Madox Brown, Cézanne, Turner, Rembrandt, Freud, Hockney … the list goes on.
This is just a very brief history of the Walker Gallery. If you’d like to know more there’s a much more detailed timeline here.
We arrived with time to have lunch in the rather nice little cafe before heading upstairs for the exhibition.
Walter Sickert (1860-1942) was born in Munich to a Danish father and Irish/English mother and moved to Britain when he was eight. He became an actor before switching to painting, but retained his interest in theatre, painting many scenes from London’s music halls.
He spent some time in France before returning to London and living in Camden where he became known for two things. The first was for his involvement in the Camden Town Group. He was a founding member of this group of British painters who focussed on realism and depicting mundane suburban life rather than glamourous drawing rooms and palaces.
The second thing he became known for was the possibility that he was Jack the Ripper. He painted female nudes in a way that offended sensibilities at the time and so was already seen as depraved. When a prostitute had her throat slit in a nearby bedroom fingers started to be pointed at Sickert. Matters weren’t helped when he titled a painting of his own bedroom at 6 Mornington Crescent as ‘Jack the Ripper’s Bedroom’. Apparently though, this was just because his landlady had told him she though a previous tenant might have been Jack the Ripper.
Patricia Cornwell published a book in 2002 called ‘Portrait of a Killer – Jack the Ripper Case Closed’. In this book she claimed that modern forensic techniques enabled her to prove without doubt that Sickert was indeed Jack the Ripper. Since then this has been debunked, especially as it seems Sickert wasn’t even in the country at the times of some of the murders.
The exhibition contains around 200 paintings and hundreds of sketches and drawings, many of which are held by the museum but have not been shown to the public before. The exhibits are grouped into themes and times such as his music hall era and the Camden Town Group era.
I found it a fascinating exhibition and learnt a lot about an artist I hadn’t previously known much about. However, I can’t say I became a big fan of his work. On the whole I found it too dark and gloomy for my liking. I know that was intentional on his part as he was wanting to depict the grit and gloom of ordinary every day life as lived by the majority of people at the time, but I’d rather have my art as bright escapism than a reminder of depressing reality.
We only had time for a quick look round the rest of the gallery, but it did look good. It’s definitely one I’ll visit again.
The open space in front of the gallery had been filled with Christmas market stalls and fairground rides. We had a nice wander round before going home. It wasn’t raining like yesterday at the Manchester Christmas Markets and the food stalls were more interesting. I still didn’t find spätzle, but we did find the most amazing Greek pitta wraps filled with halloumi, salad, tzatziki and chips. They were delicious! Of course we had to go on the Big Wheel too.
Are you familiar with the life and work of Walter Sickert? What do you think of it? And have you seen any good exhibitions lately? Share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below.
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It was great to hear from you! Somebody will have to bring real spätzle to the Manchester market along with rouladen and gravy.I have enjoyed your report.
Thanks Caro, I really missed having spätzle this year. Even C&S couldn’t bring me spätzle in the summer as they travelled with hand baggage only. I guess I’m just going to have to learn to make my own.