Walter Sickert: A Painter of Modern Urban Life = Walter Sickert: A Painter of Modern Urban Life

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The present thesis is intended to consider Walter Sickert’s urban vision, as configured in his images of modern London. In his formative years he was profoundly influenced by Impressionist masters like Whistler and Degas and developed an analogous approach to subject matter and technique, eventually attaining a highly individual style of his own. A quintessential urban painter, he was intent on grappling with and giving form to the gritty realities of city life. Sickert adopted the genre studies of urban existence like his predecessors, but he was more drawn towards the seedy, depraved and sombre aspects of the metropolis. His music hall series, alongside his other London paintings, attests to his attempt to illuminate the city as a modern text, revealing its disconcerting ambivalence and antithesis. Even while touching upon the world of urban entertainment, his prime concern consisted not in depicting the glamourous spectacle but in exploring the socio-cultural forces which condition that world. In this respect, Sickert’s key legacy to British art could be termed as new urban realism, which is engaged with addressing and opening to critical scrutiny the tensions and paradoxes inherent in modern city life.