![]() ![]() He was also humorously self-deprecating of his previous critiques. He recalled his first impression of Gauguin: ‘in a street in Dieppe, of a sturdy man with a black moustache and a bowler… no longer a youth, who was thinking of throwing up a good berth in some administration in order to give himself up entirely to the practice of painting. Yet Sickert was a rare voice defending the works of Van Gogh amongst hostile critics, and his consideration of Gauguin illustrated his awareness of the artist’s work since the mid-1880s. ![]() Picasso’s tedious invention of the puzzle-conundrum-without-an-answer and the empty sillinesses of Monsieur Matisse. He was particularly irritated by the ‘Cézanne-boom’ of the 1910s, where ‘.no self-respecting undergraduate is without his “crumpler", a “crumpler” being, I am told, the beginning of a picture or a reproduction of a picture by Cézanne.' Sickert was aware of Cézanne’s Impressionist associations, so promotion of the artist above his contemporaries provoked him. Sickert took no prisoners, whether they be artists, ill-informed critics, or zealous curators.Ī particular fly in Sickert’s ointment was Fry’s elevation of the recently deceased Cézanne. A knowledgeable and humorous commentator on art, his review was a masterclass in showmanship and calculated humility. In his role as occasional painting critic and ambassador of Impressionism, Sickert’s thoughts on the exhibition were hotly anticipated. Walter Sickert, 1897 Roger Fry’s ‘Manet and the Post-Impressionists’ exhibition was the first major exhibition in Britain to introduce audiences to contemporary artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cézanne. ![]() One of the strangest modern developments is the painting critic. ![]()
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