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Lot Essay
The present composition was painted during the artist's stay in Venice in 1903-04 and shows one of his favourite models, La Giuseppina and another model on a bed. Noting the handling of two figure subjects with specific reference to the present work, Dr Wendy Baron comments, '[Les Vénitiennes (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)] was the springboard for this painting in which La Giuseppina remains seated aloof on the far side of the bed, but her companion is now nude. This painting in turn is closely related to another now known as La Giuseppina and the Model (private collection) which can probably be identified with Conversation, No. 1, also shown at Leeds in 1942 (no. 134). The handling of both versions is accomplished. Common to all is the confident drawing of the difficult foreshortened body of the nude, with sweeping linear strokes used to define her rib-cage, breasts, shoulders and stomach. In La Giuseppina and the Model the two figures are in communion. The fragmented touch used to define La Giuseppina's face and far arm conveys an out-of-focus effect which both suggests the blur of movement and heightens the sense of immediacy' (see W. Baron, Sickert Paintings, Royal Academy exhibition catalogue, London, 1993, p. 146).
Discussing the importance of the Venetian trip, Wendy Baron comments, 'The work that Sickert did in Venice in 1903-4 was exceptionally significant in the light of his later development. At the age of 43 he initiated his exploration of the type of subject which was to become characteristic of his work after his return to London, those figure paintings for which he is perhaps best known today and which had, in their own time, a profound influence on a whole generation of younger English painters. In Venice he tackled not only single figures in the intimacy of domestic surroundings but also two-figure groups which foreshadow the Camden Town 'conversation pieces'. [...] the overall direction of his experiments with different methods of painting was of greater relevance to his general evolution than any one method considered in isolation. Nearly all the methods of handling he employed in Venice were designed to help him discover a shorthand system for stating the essential tones, patterns, and character of his subjects. Swiftness, directness, and economy were the qualities he sought and these were the qualities he continued to develop in his handling of paint over the next few years' (see W. Baron, Sickert, London, 1973, pp. 80-81).
Discussing the importance of the Venetian trip, Wendy Baron comments, 'The work that Sickert did in Venice in 1903-4 was exceptionally significant in the light of his later development. At the age of 43 he initiated his exploration of the type of subject which was to become characteristic of his work after his return to London, those figure paintings for which he is perhaps best known today and which had, in their own time, a profound influence on a whole generation of younger English painters. In Venice he tackled not only single figures in the intimacy of domestic surroundings but also two-figure groups which foreshadow the Camden Town 'conversation pieces'. [...] the overall direction of his experiments with different methods of painting was of greater relevance to his general evolution than any one method considered in isolation. Nearly all the methods of handling he employed in Venice were designed to help him discover a shorthand system for stating the essential tones, patterns, and character of his subjects. Swiftness, directness, and economy were the qualities he sought and these were the qualities he continued to develop in his handling of paint over the next few years' (see W. Baron, Sickert, London, 1973, pp. 80-81).