Walter Sickert 1860-1942 Pulteney Bridge, Bath 1918 Oil on canvas 10 x 11¾ inches (25.5 x 30 cm) Signed and dated b.l.
PROVENANCE Sir Michael Sadler; Sir Austen Harris; Sotheby’s 21 October 1959 (62); Mrs. Beatrice Moresby; Bonham’s March 1987 (246); Christie’s 6 June 2008 (31); with Agnew’s; Private Collection.
EXHIBITED Sickert: Centenary Exhibition of Pictures from Private Collections, Agnew’s, London, March-April 1960 (94); Sickert, The Fine Art Society, London, May-June 1973 (80).
LITERATURE Wendy Baron, Sickert Paintings and Drawings, New Haven & London 2006, no.492.5 repr. col.
Wendy Baron writes, ‘Sickert possibly visited Bath in 1916. He returned for much longer visits in 1917 and 1918, when he rented a house to live in with his wife at The Lodge, Entry Hill (on the far side of the River Avon), as well as several studios. Pulteney Bridge, designed to span the Avon, was opened in 1771. Sickert returned to this subject again and again, relishing its mixture of sky, water, vegetation and buildings. In each version he varied the points of cutting the scene.’ The largest and most fully realised version of this subject, (28 x 45 in) painted circa 1917-18, also known as Pulteney Bridge, Bath (Baron 492) is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art.
We are very grateful to Dr. Wendy Baron for her assistance in preparing this entry.
