Walter Richard Sickert

Off to the Pub

1911

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Not on display

Artist: Walter Richard Sickert 1860–1942
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 508 × 406 mm
frame: 695 × 595 × 45 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by Howard Bliss 1943
Reference: N05430

Display caption

Through the poses of the figures and title, Sickert evokes the aftermath of a domestic row. The woman’s clasped hands and steady gaze suggest hurt emotions and resignation, while her husband takes refuge by leaving for the pub.

The male model is ‘Hubby’, whose real name is unknown. A reformed alcoholic, he joined Sickert in 1911 to help around the studio and modelled for a number of pictures. When Hubby turned to drink again in 1914, Sickert had to dismiss him. He wrote ‘It is like death, only worse, and I will miss his kind silly old face and his sympathetic pomposity’.

Gallery label, February 2004

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emotions, concepts and ideas(16,660)
- emotions and human qualities(5,351)
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interiors(4,551)
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