3/5/12

Walter Richard Sickert, Jack the Ripper's Bedroom


Manchester Art Gallery

Date: c. 1907
Technique: Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.7 cm

Sickert rented a studio in the East End of London, a notoriously rough and brutal area, as he wanted his art to convey the seediness of life. His landlady told him that she thought a previous lodger may have been infamous murderer, 'Jack the Ripper'. The horrible murders had happened close-by and this was clearly a big attraction for Sickert. His new studio inspired a series of murky interiors.

The blackness and blurred shapes in this painting make the viewer a detective. If you stare hard, pieces of furniture can be made out but the pink stroke of paint on the floor is ambiguous: it could be the effect of light from the window but perhaps is something worse.

Source 1
Source 2

No comments:

  • James Hamilton, Arctic scene, after Dr E K Kane (?)24.02.2017 - 0 Comments
  • Albert Sterner, Erl King 08.07.2015 - 0 Comments
  • Joseph Wright of Derby, Bridge through a Cavern, Moonlight13.06.2019 - 0 Comments
  • Louis Rémy Mignot, Winter Scene, Holland14.02.2017 - 0 Comments
  • Telemaco Signorini, The Towpath (L'alzaia)13.09.2015 - 0 Comments