“The Most French and English Painters” on display at the Petit Palais

Much has been said and written about Walter Siegert as “a womanizer.” Great! But it is important to note that these women, as well as his husbands anyway, freed him from all financial pressures and allowed him to devote himself fully to his art! Thanks, ladies. First, let’s mention the iconic figure of Dieppe, Ellen Copden, a fishmonger. The artist would dedicate almost 300 canvases to this coastal city, including a small gem titled “Bathers, Dieppe” painted in 1902. All the artist’s art consists in giving a glimpse of the daily life of the people who live on the coast.. those who know how to spare time.

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In Dieppe, he is guaranteed to find lessons of tenderness and inspiration. But under other skies, she could rely on Christine Angus, admired by the London aristocracy for her work as an illustrator and embroiderer, or take refuge in the arms of Therese Lesor (a Londoner, but of French parentage). A painter. These women who loved him would continue to provide for the painter’s financial needs – even years after their separation.

Bars, bistros, music venues…

The fact is that if Walter wanted to immortalize on canvas the main places of the cities he was exploring – these squares and these monuments familiar to him, in Dieppe, Venice and London – his primary interest was the common people, the bars. , bistros, music venues. In all those places good London society regards them as sleazy and sweaty companions. A taste for provocation that led to a friendly and professional rift with one of his mentors, the American painter James Abbott Whistler. of indicator, Old Bedford, Oxford Music Hall: An entire room of the Petit Palais is devoted to attracting the working classes to these nocturnal parties. Mary Lloyd, known for her comic songs, the artist sought refuge there to rub shoulders with cabaret artists such as Minnie Cunningham, Ada Lundberg, Rosie Lloyd.

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Little Todd Hetherington in Old Bedford , the canvas chosen for the 1889 exhibition poster, is a perfect example. We see a young woman dressed in white cotton embroidery on stage: dazzled by a beam of light emanating from the top of the room, she points her finger at the audience in a basket. Meanwhile, the painter – like us – observes the scene from one of the bathtubs located in the garden. The pictorial touch feels greasy, rough, and blurring, thus delaying the viewer to appreciate the details camouflaged by the play of shadows.

Obsessed with Jack the Ripper

“Look through the keyhole!” » Here is the advice given by another friend of his, Edgar Degas, who would become his mentor. Surprising the viewer by angling his subjects in surprising ways and presenting him with scenes that flirt with license: this would become one of the artist’s “signatures”. If the “academic nudity” did not wait until Walter Sickert appeared on the canvases, the “original nudity” proposed by the painter – this nudity that completely removes its sensual attraction and its sensuality – collides enough to repel us. . Crooked, voluptuous bodies, flesh stretched out in simple form, without any accompaniment, heavy chests, indescribable faces, almost dismembered bodies, lying on makeshift beds, the nude signed Sickert is terrifying. It’s exciting.

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It’s no surprise to know that the artist has a passion for news. According to some art critics at the time, his series of nudes were actually just a reflection of his obsession with the murders of the enigmatic Jack the Ripper. So are we dealing with a bloodthirsty painter? This is a theory put forward in particular by the novelist Patricia Cornwell, but without any evidence, these rumors will only increase interest in what many consider to be “the most French of English painters”.

Walter Siegert, Paint and trespass.Through January 29, 2023, at the Petite Palais, Paris.