Walter Sickert

Sickert painted women on beds,
not the way Police take photos.
Women alive on their bedsteads,
each job deserves an ex voto.

Some young man’s flying trapeze act,
some bald, older man’s heft and shove,
at least left the body intact.
Sickert’s not forensic with love.

Degas showed him the Music Hall,
the pierrots and the acrobats.
Monarchy makes its curtain call,
those kings that are now just stared at.

The Honourable Lady Fry
gives you the eye.

Woodford Halse - 8 July 2025

The British artist, Walter Sickert ( 1860 - 1942). There is a lot to be said about his Art. Royal portraiture has not really been possible since his King George V and his Racing Manager ( 1927) and his HM King Edward VIII ( 1936).

Though we may dismiss the speculation that Sickert was Jack the Ripper, he nonetheless took a close interest in the life of sex workers at a time when their murders occurred. The Honourable Lady Fry ( c. 1935) was another kind of portrait.

Of course, I know Sickert’s first version of the Brighton Pierrots ( 1915) from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The second version is at the Tate.