The blue hat

Walter Sickert described <em>The blue hat</em>  as one of six 'direct little pictures' that he was working on in 1914. The picture is one of Sickert's frequently painted subjects - an informal portrait of a Cockney girl shown in her humble surroundings. He often found his models in the streets of Camden Town, believing that artists should 'render the magic and the poetry which they daily see around them'. A sketch made of the painting in a letter of February 1914 identifies his model as 'Lil'. In <em>The blue hat</em> Sickert has captured her in a moment of arrested development, focusing on her suddenly turned head and fleeting smile. Sickert was fascinated by his models' clothes, which he described as showing 'the sumptuous poverty of their class'; in both the painting and title of this work he draws attention to the drab finery of the modest hat with its jaunty feather. In portraits like this he was portraying not just an individual, but a whole class and its way of life.

Sickert's paint handling is boldly impressionistic, showing his mastery of the oil medium. The girl's face is built up with broad dabs of green, red, brown and ochre paint, which merge to simulate light-reflecting skin tone. Other details, such as her shawl and the fireplace in the background, are painted in a more summary fashion, helping to give the painting its sketch-like spontaneity.

Sickert was one of the most influential British artists of his period. A pupil of James McNeill Whistler, and a friend and disciple of Edgar Degas, he helped introduce modern French ideas into British painting. His work and teaching were a source of inspiration to successive generations of British artists who wished to break away from the established academic style. Believing in the collective artistic experience, he co-founded artists' societies and attracted younger admirers who congregated in his studio. This led to the formation of the Camden Town Group in 1911.

Source:

Victoria Robson, 'Walter Sickert 1860-1942/ England', in William McAloon (ed.), <em>Art at Te Papa</em> (Wellington, Te Papa Press, 2009), p. 173.