Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) was a German born British painter and a leading member of the Camden Town Group. In a career which spanned six decades he earned the title ‘the painter’s, painter’ for his tenacity and courage in pioneering techniques which were best appreciated by his fellow artists.
The coastal town of Dieppe was a social and artistic centre in the Normandy region of northern France. For Sickert the town was a place full of happy childhood memories, and he returned often with his wife Ellen Cobden. Sickert eventually moved to Dieppe in 1898, where he stayed until 1905. Dieppe played an important role in Sickert’s painting career as it was here that he and Degas became friends following their introduction in Paris in 1883. The friendship was immortalised by Degas through his depiction of Sickert in Six friends at Dieppe (1885) and greatly informed Sickert’s artistic development.