Sickert’s London - ACE247.2

Photographs of Walter Sickert. Frank Auerbach, Painter, suggests the reason he looks different in each one is that the British environment was so hostile to art that artists had to disguise themselves in order to survive, and London a good place to hide in. London at night. VO reading "London is spiffing! Such evil, racy little faces, and such a comfortable feeling of the solid basis of beef and beer." London at dawn. BBC announcer’s VO introducing programme on Walter Sickert in series "As I knew him". Blue plaque for Sickert. VO over of Sir Alex Martin in 1960. Interior of Sickert’s house. Self Portrait (1896). Self Portrait (1907) (The Juvenile Lead). Self Portrait (1907) (The Painter in his Studio). Self Portrait (1927) (Lazarus Breaks his Fast). Self Portrait (1929) (The Servant of Abraham). Self Portrait (1937). Commentary gives some brief biographical details and lists James Whistler and Paul Gauguin as major influences. Photographs. Caption: "The Sickert Archive, Islington Library." Commentary refers to Sickert as "one of the undiscovered heroes of modern art". Howard Hodgkin, Painter, looking through scrapbooks of newspaper cuttings on Sickert, reads a piece from 1932 which notes that Sickert has shaved off his beard as well as changing the use of his name from Richard to Walter to W.R. Barber’s shop. Man being shaved. Street scenes in Islington and Camden Town. Auerbach describes Sickert as the greatest painter of London. Houses in Barnsbury Park, Highbury Place, Gloucester Crescent, Brecknock Road, Noel Road, in all of which Sickert had a studio at some time or another. The Royal Academy of Arts, London. Workmen moving paintings. Commentary says Sickert’s paintings of nudes sold in Paris, but "too hot" for the London market. Augustus John’s Lyric Fantasy (c.1913). Auerbach being uncomplimentary about John’s attitude to Sickert’s work. Nudes. Unpacking paintings. Richard Shone, Writer, quoting criticism of Sickert’s work. La Hollandaise (c.1906). Another nude.