Lot Essay
Richard Shone (loc. cit., 1992) comments on the present work
''Jack and Jill' is probably based on a publicity still (rather than a frame from the film itself) for the New York mobster movie Bullets or Ballots (1936). This was a Warner Bros. production, directed by William Keighly and starred Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell (both pictured here) and Humphrey Bogart. Robinson played Johnny Blake, a character based on the real-life New York City detective Johnny Broderick, Blondell was Lee Morgan, and Bogart, Nick Fenner. The film was first shown in London in August 1936. From a recent television showing of Bullets or Ballots it was apparent Sickert must have used a publicity still, for the two lead actors never appear as shown here, though a scene in the back of a car is an approximation of Sickert's image. Although the painter did occasionally go to see the films (a picture-house interior, 'Cinematograph' was shown at the 1912 NEAC exhibition ...) 'Jack and Jill is one of only two records of the contemporary cinema ... In his autobiography, Edward G. Robinson records that the film was 'an eighteen-karat, walloping wowsie of a hit' (All my Yesterdays, 1974, p.176). With some of his considerable earnings he bought several fine modern French paintings for his growing collection. He purchased 'Jack and Jill' from the Kaplan Gallery, London, after the Second World War.
This is one of Sickert's most dramatic photo-based close-ups, lit from below ... and reminiscent of some of the music-hall audiences of thirty or more years earlier. Touches of the blue underpainting are allowed to show through, giving surface variety to the otherwise terse economy of colour. Whether or not Sickert knew it, he chose an image which perfectly exemplifies the film's impending tragedy - Robinson's smiling complacence and Blondell's zealous loyalty, as seen here, prove their undoing'
''Jack and Jill' is probably based on a publicity still (rather than a frame from the film itself) for the New York mobster movie Bullets or Ballots (1936). This was a Warner Bros. production, directed by William Keighly and starred Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell (both pictured here) and Humphrey Bogart. Robinson played Johnny Blake, a character based on the real-life New York City detective Johnny Broderick, Blondell was Lee Morgan, and Bogart, Nick Fenner. The film was first shown in London in August 1936. From a recent television showing of Bullets or Ballots it was apparent Sickert must have used a publicity still, for the two lead actors never appear as shown here, though a scene in the back of a car is an approximation of Sickert's image. Although the painter did occasionally go to see the films (a picture-house interior, 'Cinematograph' was shown at the 1912 NEAC exhibition ...) 'Jack and Jill is one of only two records of the contemporary cinema ... In his autobiography, Edward G. Robinson records that the film was 'an eighteen-karat, walloping wowsie of a hit' (All my Yesterdays, 1974, p.176). With some of his considerable earnings he bought several fine modern French paintings for his growing collection. He purchased 'Jack and Jill' from the Kaplan Gallery, London, after the Second World War.
This is one of Sickert's most dramatic photo-based close-ups, lit from below ... and reminiscent of some of the music-hall audiences of thirty or more years earlier. Touches of the blue underpainting are allowed to show through, giving surface variety to the otherwise terse economy of colour. Whether or not Sickert knew it, he chose an image which perfectly exemplifies the film's impending tragedy - Robinson's smiling complacence and Blondell's zealous loyalty, as seen here, prove their undoing'