Study for "The Old Bedford"

Maker Walter Sickert (British, 1860-1942)

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Date1893

Mediumcharcoal and graphite pencil on blue laid paper

Dimensions21 5/8 × 15 3/8 in. (54.9 × 39.1 cm.)

InscribedInscribed at top of sheet recto in graphite: Painted on a canvas given me by F. Forster in ?schonst[er] Verbundenheit at Neuville...sold to Cahen. Bt At Hotel Drouot by Bernheims

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Status

Not on view

Label TextThe Old Bedford Theatre in London appears often in Sickert’s work in the 1880s and 1890s. Its towering auditorium and crowded galleries provided him with ample material with which to experiment. Sickert, who had tried acting in his youth, was fascinated by the theater, particularly the music hall. This drawing is one of numerous studies made for a series of paintings, and it includes notes of where to add colors to the final painting. With loose strokes of charcoal creating a sense of flurrying movement, Sickert captures the enthusiasm of the crowd as they respond to the performance (2022).

Object number93.7