Sickert Drawings: The Painter’s Eye

Gifted, intelligent, and always unpredictable, Walter Sickert (1860-1942) is a singular figure among the generation of brilliant characters of the fin de si cle. He holds a unique position in Modern English painting, being equally at home in London and Paris. He lived and worked for extensive periods in Dieppe and Venice and was an important link in the connection between English and French painting in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

After an important apprenticeship with Whistler, he changed his allegiance to Degas and adopted his method of painting from drawings. Drawing became the activity by which Sickert extracted what he called 'the visual facts' enabling him to paint from drawings in the studio.

Sickert investigated the visible world, making innumerable notes on any scrap of paper; he also made detailed drawings as studies for his paintings. It is these drawings which are the subject of this book – drawings that are directly connected to some of his most important paintings, some of which are also reproduced.
The text is in two parts, The Artist's Progress through the eyes of his contemporaries and The Painter's Eye, which examines Sickert's lifelong quest to find the best way to use oil paint and how drawings were made as blueprints for the paintings. As Sickert has written widely about drawing, the book contains a series of relevant passages from his critical writings.

The author, Lou Klepac, has had a long interest in Sickert's work. He organised a large Sickert Retrospective for the 1968 Adelaide Festival and in 1979 an exhibition of Sickert Drawings at the Art Gallery of Western Australia which was also shown in other State Galleries.

AUTHOR:
Lou Klepac was born in Croatia in 1936. Moving to Italy in 1944 he went to school in Venice and Trieste and in 1950 emigrated to Australia. After graduating from the University of Western Australia in 1958, he spent several years in London and Italy. He was Curator of Paintings at the Art Gallery of Western Australia 1964-66; and at the Art Gallery of South Australia 1966–70. After a period in London, he became Senior Curator and Deputy Director at the Art Gallery of Western Australia 1974–80. Among the many exhibitions he has organised are: Master Drawings of the 17th century from the Witt Collection 1968; Walter Sickert Retrospective, 1968 Adelaide Festival; Contemporary Drawing International 1977; Giorgio Morandi etchings 1978; Emilio Vedova graphic works 1979; The Drawings of Walter Richard Sickert 1979; Russell Drysdale drawings 1980; Russell Drysdale paintings 1983; Giorgio Morandi: the dimension of inner space (paintings and etchings) 1997; La Serenissima, the fascination of Venice 2003; and James Gleeson Retrospective 2004. Among his books are William Scott drawings 1974; Russell Drysdale, Life and Work 1983; Australian Painters of the 20th Century 2000; Brett Whiteley drawings 2014; Hans Heysen 2016; and Tim Storrier 2018. Since 1980 he has lived in Sydney with his family.

ISBN: 9780947349677
Author: KLEPAC, LOU
Format: Hardcover
Publication date: 01/08/2022
RRP: $120.00
Pages: 228
Dimension: 290mm X 280mm
Imprint: The Beagle Press