Walter Sickert and Print Culture, 1890—1930s

This thesis explores the relationship between the art of Walter Sickert and print culture from 1890 to 1938. It argues that print culture in this period was essential for the creation and communication of Sickert’s art. The topic of print culture is adopted as a revision of, and intervention within, the currently dominant discourse of paint in Sickert studies. It provides new insights into questions of originality and reproduction, as well as the relationship between form and narrative in Sickert’s art. I introduce theories of intermediality, examining the qualities possessed by—and yet appropriable from—each medium, in order to see how painting can be printerly. This study is facilitated by my discovery of previously overlooked and buried print materials related to the imagery in Sickert’s paintings and drawings, including the little magazines of the 1890s and 1910s, a diverse range of mass print ephemera, such as posters and postcards, and the mid-Victorian periodical illustrations that Sickert used as sources for his late paintings.
Through these materials I explore the different facets of print in relation to Sickert’s art. Chapter one examines Sickert’s drawings printed in the little magazines and argues that his artistic idea was rooted in journalism. Chapter two focuses on the printerly language of Sickert’s paintings from three perspectives, focusing in turn on line, colour, and montage. It argues that Sickert’s use of paint was in dialogue with his understanding of print media, and was further developed as social commentary. Chapter three investigates Sickert’s paintings appropriating topical news stories, and examines a wider print culture that influenced the way these artworks were created and perceived. Chapter four examines Sickert’s late series, the English Echoes. It analyses a set of Echoes in light of their source illustrations, and suggests potential interpretations for each Echo, attending to their intersections with contemporary cultural narratives as well as Sickert’s own artistic journey. The chapter also focuses on the act of “echoing,” a perspective that provides a new way to understand the originality of these works.