Walter Richard Sickert

L’Américaine

1908

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Not on display

Artist: Walter Richard Sickert 1860–1942
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 508 x 406 mm
frame: 748 x 649 x 55 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Bequeathed by Lady Henry Cavendish-Bentinck 1940
Reference: N05090

Display caption

Despite its French title this is a painting of a London 'costergirl', a woman who worked selling food from a barrow. Sickert was exhibiting paintings both in France and in London, and the title was probably given after it had been shown with his dealer Bernheim Jeune in Paris. He wrote 'Here I am deep in two divine costergirls - one with sunlight on her indoors. You know the trompe l'oeil hat all the coster girls wear here with a crown fitting the head inside and expanded outside to immense proportions. It's called an 'American sailor'(hat)'.

Gallery label, September 2004

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