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拍品專文
Among the many figure paintings made by Sickert in Venice from 1903-1904 (see lot 176), this lively portrait is one of the small number not set within his rooms at 340 Calle dei Frate. The implication of the thrown back position of the head, is that it represents the model outdoors, the wind in her hair. Occasionally Sickert placed informal portrait studies of his models against backcloths of Venice, as in Zul’Zattere showing La Inez against a view of San Giorgio Maggiore, or La Callera with La Giuseppina against a hazy, non-specific view. However, both these paintings were artificial constructs.
La Jolie Vénitienne has no background. It is an uninhibited Hogarthian portrait of carefree youth. The characterisation looks so spontaneous that it comes as a surprise to learn that it exists in two versions. The fact that the first owners of both were French dealers, Adolphe Tavernier and Paul Robert, both keen collectors of Sickert’s work in their private as well as their commercial capacities, may suggest an explanation: that one was beaten by the other to the purchase and commissioned a second version. A retrospective Sickert loan exhibition at the Galerie Cardo in Paris in 1930 brought the two versions together, one as Portrait (La Jolie Vénitienne) and the other, the painting on offer here, as Tête de Jeune Femme.
Sickert, whose efforts in the 1890s to earn a reputation and an income as a portrait painter had failed, excelled throughout his life at painting informal portraits of his friends and models. In a letter dated 1 January 1904, telling Mrs William Hulton about painting ‘a very old woman with a fazzoletto, black, with peacocks’ feathers on her head’ (his three paintings of Mamma mia Poveretta), he also mentioned that his models included ‘some very pretty young ones’. The tartan shawl worn by La Jolie Vénitienne suggests his model was Carolina del’Acqua who frequently wore such a garment when she modelled for Sickert.
We are very grateful to Dr Wendy Baron for preparing this catalogue entry.
La Jolie Vénitienne has no background. It is an uninhibited Hogarthian portrait of carefree youth. The characterisation looks so spontaneous that it comes as a surprise to learn that it exists in two versions. The fact that the first owners of both were French dealers, Adolphe Tavernier and Paul Robert, both keen collectors of Sickert’s work in their private as well as their commercial capacities, may suggest an explanation: that one was beaten by the other to the purchase and commissioned a second version. A retrospective Sickert loan exhibition at the Galerie Cardo in Paris in 1930 brought the two versions together, one as Portrait (La Jolie Vénitienne) and the other, the painting on offer here, as Tête de Jeune Femme.
Sickert, whose efforts in the 1890s to earn a reputation and an income as a portrait painter had failed, excelled throughout his life at painting informal portraits of his friends and models. In a letter dated 1 January 1904, telling Mrs William Hulton about painting ‘a very old woman with a fazzoletto, black, with peacocks’ feathers on her head’ (his three paintings of Mamma mia Poveretta), he also mentioned that his models included ‘some very pretty young ones’. The tartan shawl worn by La Jolie Vénitienne suggests his model was Carolina del’Acqua who frequently wore such a garment when she modelled for Sickert.
We are very grateful to Dr Wendy Baron for preparing this catalogue entry.