- Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) is one of the great figures of British painting. He is perhaps most famous for his depictions of the music hall, its artistes, audience and elaborate interiors; and for his vibrant views of Venice and Dieppe. In recent years his later works - portraits and scenes from contemporary theatre - have gained him new admirers. Sickert's range of subject was enormous and his technical achievement both searching and progressive. Too long regarded as simply a follower of the Impressionists he has now come to be seen to have strong affinities with a wide range of artists - from Hogarth to Keene, from nineteenth-century German illustrators to Rouault and Munch. He embraced formal portraiture and idyllic landscape, controversial domestic scenes (such as Camden Town Murder), and memorable portrayals of public figures, the canals of Venice, the old streets of Dieppe and of England in the 1930s. There have been numerous exhibitions of Sickert's work since his death but the last full-scale retrospective in London was over thirty years ago. This publication coincides with, and serves as the catalogue of, a major retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. It includes essays on Sickert's artistic context and influence, the history of the music hall, and Sickert's interest in conventional theatre in the 1930s. Written by the foremost experts on Sickert and his period, this book is a richly illustrated complement to the exhibition, exploring all its themes in detail. Contents : Essays. Walter Sickert, the Dispassionate Observer / Richard Shone. Sickert 'Painter-in-Ordinary' to the Music-Hall / Anna Gruetzner Robins. 'The Reunion of Stage and Art': Sickert and the Theatre between the Wars / Patrick O'Conner -- Chronology / Wendy Baron -- The Catalogue. I. 1860 -- 1889. Sickert's preface to 'A Collection of Paintings by London Impressionists'. Catalogue Numbers 1 -- 13. II. 1890 -- Autumn 1898. Sickert on Millet and Bastien-Lepage. Catalogue Numbers 14 -- 24. III. Autumn 1898 -- 1904. Catalogue Numbers 25 -- 43. IV. 1905 -- September 1914. 'The New Life of Whistler'. Idealism. The Language of Art. Sickert on the Study of Drawing. Catalogue Numbers 44 -- 81. V. September 1914 -- 1918. Sickert's Obituary of S.F. Gore. Catalogue Numbers 82 -- 93. VI. 1919 -- 1926. Catalogue Numbers 94 -- 101. VII. 1927- 1942. Sickert Lectures on Drawing and on Painting. Catalogue Numbers 102 -- 134