Walter Richard Sickert A.R.A. (British, 1860-1942) Charles Bradlaugh's Study signed and inscribed 'To Mrs Bradlaugh Bonner/Walter Sickert' (lower left) oil on canvas 63.5 x 76.3 cm. (25 x 30 in.) Painted in 1891 Fußnoten Provenance The Artist, by whom gifted to Mrs Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner Sir Julian Cahn, thence by descent to Private Collection, U.K. With Daniel Katz Gallery, London, October 2010, where acquired by Private Collection, U.K. Literature Matthew Sturgis, Walter Sickert: A Life, Harper Collins, London, 2005, pp.181, 685 Wendy Baron, Sickert, Paintings & Drawings, Yale University Press, London & New Haven, 2006, p.190, cat.no.59 (col.ill) Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891) was a radical Member of Parliament for Northampton, atheist and founder of the National Secular Society. The year prior to Bradlaugh's death Sickert painted the MP's portrait in the muted tones of his parliamentarian robes which was exhibited at the NEAC in Spring 1890. He also sketched a cartoon (Fig.1) published in June 1890 in the newly established 'lively and eccentric' newspaper The Whirlwind, for which Sickert held a brief tenure as art critic. In it Sickert depicted Bradlaugh in his study, seated beneath the bust shown in the present canvas. Following these two depictions Sickert's biographer Matthew Sturgis remarks that Sickert had taken a position almost as Bradlaugh's official portraitist. Following Bradlaugh's death in January of 1891 Sickert offered to paint a memorial portrait on commission by a donor of the Manchester Secular Society, which now resides in the Manchester Art Gallery (and is indeed the first documented occasion of Sickert painting from a photograph, a method he would employ repeatedly in his later career). Sickert also painted the present canvas, a depiction of Bradluagh's empty study at his home in St John's Wood. Spontaneously sketched, Sickert has rapidly noted the tools of Bradlaugh's trade; the books, papers and writing desk, the light from the window highlights his now empty chair. Painted for and dedicated to Bradlaugh's daughter Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner, Baron describes the painting as an 'evocative memento of her father and his work'. (Wendy Baron, Sickert Paintings & Drawings, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, p.190). We are grateful to Dr. Wendy Baron for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.
Walter Richard Sickert A.R.A. (British, 1860-1942) Charles Bradlaugh's Study signed and inscribed 'To Mrs Bradlaugh Bonner/Walter Sickert' (lower left) oil on canvas 63.5 x 76.3 cm. (25 x 30 in.) Painted in 1891 Fußnoten Provenance The Artist, by whom gifted to Mrs Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner Sir Julian Cahn, thence by descent to Private Collection, U.K. With Daniel Katz Gallery, London, October 2010, where acquired by Private Collection, U.K. Literature Matthew Sturgis, Walter Sickert: A Life, Harper Collins, London, 2005, pp.181, 685 Wendy Baron, Sickert, Paintings & Drawings, Yale University Press, London & New Haven, 2006, p.190, cat.no.59 (col.ill) Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891) was a radical Member of Parliament for Northampton, atheist and founder of the National Secular Society. The year prior to Bradlaugh's death Sickert painted the MP's portrait in the muted tones of his parliamentarian robes which was exhibited at the NEAC in Spring 1890. He also sketched a cartoon (Fig.1) published in June 1890 in the newly established 'lively and eccentric' newspaper The Whirlwind, for which Sickert held a brief tenure as art critic. In it Sickert depicted Bradlaugh in his study, seated beneath the bust shown in the present canvas. Following these two depictions Sickert's biographer Matthew Sturgis remarks that Sickert had taken a position almost as Bradlaugh's official portraitist. Following Bradlaugh's death in January of 1891 Sickert offered to paint a memorial portrait on commission by a donor of the Manchester Secular Society, which now resides in the Manchester Art Gallery (and is indeed the first documented occasion of Sickert painting from a photograph, a method he would employ repeatedly in his later career). Sickert also painted the present canvas, a depiction of Bradluagh's empty study at his home in St John's Wood. Spontaneously sketched, Sickert has rapidly noted the tools of Bradlaugh's trade; the books, papers and writing desk, the light from the window highlights his now empty chair. Painted for and dedicated to Bradlaugh's daughter Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner, Baron describes the painting as an 'evocative memento of her father and his work'. (Wendy Baron, Sickert Paintings & Drawings, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, p.190). We are grateful to Dr. Wendy Baron for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
