You'd be surprised

Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) was an English painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century.

Sickert was a cosmopolitan and eccentric who often favoured ordinary people and urban scenes as his subjects. His work also included portraits of well-known personalities and images derived from press photographs. He is considered a prominent figure in the transition from Impressionism to Modernism. The famous crime novelist, Patricia Cornwell, has in recent years unconvincingly tried to prove that Sickert was the notorious serial murderer Jack the Ripper. 

Printmaking was an extremely important part of Sickert's oeuvre. A comprehensive understanding and appreciation of his achievements here has only relatively recently become possible through the research of Aimee Troyen and Ruth Bromberg. Sickert learned the craft of etching from his mentor, James McNeill Whistler and over his lifetime produced at least 226 prints.

This 'late style' Sickert etching relates to two earlier paintings of the same performer, Hilda Glyder, in the popular revue 'You'd be Surprised' (c. 1923). Evidently she was one of the lesser-known performers. She is depicted again, performing in the Shoreditch Olympia Music Hall, in two etchings of 1928-9, of which this is one (the other is entitled Hilda Glyder). According to Sickert expert Wendy Baron, 'she looks plain and frumpishly dressed, unlike either of the paintings', and adds that comparison with a photograph of her on the sheet music of 'You went away too far' (1927), the etchings present the better likeness (p. 499).

See:

Wendy Baron, Sickert: Paintings and Drawings (New Haven and London, 2006), no. 585, p. 499.

Wikipedia, 'Walter Sickert', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Sickert

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator Historical International Art   November 2018