Walter Sickert & his muse

This week we invite you to take a deeper look into one of the works on display in Te Ahikāroa: Artists & Stories of Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Acquired in 1956, Peggy Ashcroft and Valerie Tudor in ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ (1932-33) by Walter Sickert is a late-career work by an artist who was influential in ushering in the era of British Modernism.

Born in Munich in 1860, Sickert moved to England in 1868 with his family. After first pursuing a career in acting, Sickert pivoted to painting and attended London’s Slade School of Fine Arts in 1881. However, his love for the performing arts was never lost and scenes of music halls, actors, and audiences feature prominently across his oeuvre. Late in his career he met actress Peggy Ashcroft and she thereafter became somewhat of a muse. Peggy Ashcroft and Valerie Tudor in ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ is one of several works depicting the actress in her role as Kate Hardcastle during the 1932-33 season of Oliver Goldsmith’s comedy play at London’s Old Vic theatre. Sickert was often in attendance at these performances accompanied by a photographer who would snap shots of Ashcroft on stage, which he would then use as inspiration for his paintings.

This painting was innovative for its time, featuring loose brushwork and a reserved palette of blues, browns, and whites. Peggy Ashcroft and Valerie Tudor are caught mid-dialogue, bleached white by the blinding stage lights against a background swathed in deep blue shadow. The work showcases Sickert’s skill at capturing his subjects in action, rather than in a carefully staged pose as per the tradition that preceded him.
 

Noho ora mai,
Sarah McGaughran
Ihupukutaka Kairauhī Curatorial Intern
Dunedin Public Art Gallery

[Image: Walter Sickert, Peggy Ashcroft and Valerie Tudor in ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ (1932-33). Oil on canvas. Collection of Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Purchased 1956 by Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society with funds from the Cyril Nichols Bequest through the National Art Gallery Collections Fund, London.]