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Hi Celesta,
I agree totally. Nice to catch up with you.
Julie
I agree totally. Nice to catch up with you.
Julie
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Plus, it was happening in his OWN TOWN, in neighborhoods he knew. Which would make the interest more intense.Originally posted by Mort Belfry View PostComment
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I do think Sickert was odd, maybe somewhat morbid.
One thing Ms Cornwell has seeingly brought out, is that Walter's interests were rather more active (letter writing) than anyone had previously thought.
Phil HComment
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Whilst I am no art critic, I was always attracted to Sickert's paintings, which I find, in the main, to be enticingly morbid. He did have something of an obsession with low life, probably not unique amongst painters, and also perhaps more than a passing interest in murder - cf The Camden Town Murder, the subject being a real murder-case of the early 1890's. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Sickert wasn't one of the first to embark upon a 'Jack The Ripper Walk'.
GrahamWe are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture and hypothesis. - Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure Of Silver BlazeComment
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Why was Sickert so interested in JtR?
I'm sorry, I find this amusing. If all off us here on casebook were not fascinated with JtR, this forum would vanish. Many here have written books or articles, spend much time in research, walked the murder sites, enhanced photos, etc.
Does that make us all morbid and strange? Probably. Does it make us suspect, even if we lived during the 1880's? Of course not!And the questions always linger, no real answer in sightComment
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Sorry, maybe I didn't make myself clear. I wasn't suggesting or even supporting the notion that Sickert was the Ripper - a notion I find ludicrous, as it goes. I was only suggesting that perhaps at some time after the crimes were committed, Sickert took himself on a tour of the sites, as I believe plenty of people did.
And many of Sickert's paintings are morbid, whether we like it or not. But that doesn't necessarily mean that Sickert himself was of such a disposition.
GrahamWe are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture and hypothesis. - Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure Of Silver BlazeComment
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ask yourself this wuestion - why are you so interested. IS Sickert different to you?“be just and fear not”Comment
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Is that question aimed at me, or posters to this thread in general?Originally posted by Jenni Shelden View Post
GrahamWe are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture and hypothesis. - Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure Of Silver BlazeComment
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Hello Graham,
I think that the replies were aimed at the question as posed, and not any single poster.I confess that altruistic and cynically selfish talk seem to me about equally unreal. With all humility, I think 'whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,' infinitely more important than the vain attempt to love one's neighbour as one's self. If you want to hit a bird on the wing you must have all your will in focus, you must not be thinking about yourself, and equally, you must not be thinking about your neighbour; you must be living with your eye on that bird. Every achievement is a bird on the wing.
Oliver Wendell HolmesComment
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No probs, folks, and I'm happy to answer for my part:
I like mysteries, especially murder mysteries, and my latent interest in JtR was fired first by Daniel Farson's TV programme, and then later by Stephen Knight's book.
Sickert differed from me in one major respect: he had talent. But I'm sure like many people at the time, he was deeply interested in what was happening in the East End in 1888.
Cheers,
GrahamWe are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture and hypothesis. - Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure Of Silver BlazeComment
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Precisely Graham, I agree that some of his paintings were morbid but they were reflecting the world that Sickert was experiencing and his paintings were a narrative of that world.Originally posted by Graham View Post
When he painted 'Jack the Ripper's Bedroom' he was doing no more than recording and reviewing events that were a vivid part of Londoner's lives, events that captured the public imagination - a 'dreadful delight' as Judith Walkowiz called it.
I do not see how Sickert and his work differ from say, modern day Ripper tours.Comment
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A somewhat humorous answer to the original question that comes from an old Warner Brother cartoon:
Why was Sickert so interested in JtR?
Everybody should have a hobby, Senor.And the questions always linger, no real answer in sightComment
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An interesting possible explanation for Sickert's red handkerchief "fetish.
Henry Irving, the great actor manager, had a scene painter at the Lyceum called Hawes Craven. The latter who always wore a red bandana when working on scenery, which was as one biography of irving puts it Ws asignal for close an intensive action". I believe that Sickert, when young was a member of the Lyceum company.
As an aspirant artist, could he well have associated with Hawes Craven, and have picked up the the affectation of the red handkerchief then. When young, we often copy things that our elders do, after all.
Just a thought in passing.
Phil HComment
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Reminds me of Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.Originally posted by RavenDarkendale View Post
“Do you smoke?
Well, yes, I must admit I smoke.
I'm glad to hear of it. A man should always have an occupation of some kind.”Comment
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By the way, has it occurred to anyone else that perhaps Sickert just wasn't all that great as an artist? True the pictures of some of the women are downright disturbing, but then he seemed more interested in boobs and behinds than faces anyhow...
Besides Cornwell's investigations have done a wonderful job of tying Sickert to select JtR letters. I've always wondered if some were penned by Oscar Wilde. Be about like him!
DarkendaleAnd the questions always linger, no real answer in sightComment
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