The Old Bedford – (Bernard Sickert) Previous Next


Artist:

Date: 1895

Size: 76 x 60 cm

Museum: National Museums Liverpool (Liverpool, United Kingdom)

Technique: Oil On Canvas

Following the example of Édouard Manet (1832 – 1883) and Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917) and their paintings of Parisian cafes and theatres, Sickert painted the raucous nightlife of London’s music halls throughout his career. He was a regular visitor at the Bedford Music Hall in Camden Town, the subject of this painting. Sickert may have intended it as a sequel to his earlier picture of the child performer Little Dot Hetherington on the stage of the Bedford, in which she is shown pointing to this spot while singing the popular song, “The Boy I Love is up in the Gallery”. As well as recording vividly the atmosphere and setting of a late 19th century performance, this is a brilliant exercise in lighting and composition. Sickert exploits the contrast between the shadowy auditorium and the reflected glare of the stage, and creates tricks of space and perspective by means of the giant mirror on the left.

This artwork is in the public domain.

Artist

Download

Click here to download

Permissions

Free for non commercial use. See below.

Public domain

This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. However - you may not use this image for commercial purposes and you may not alter the image or remove the watermark.

This applies to the United States, Canada, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.


Note that a few countries have copyright terms longer than 70 years: Mexico has 100 years, Colombia has 80 years, and Guatemala and Samoa have 75 years. This image may not be in the public domain in these countries, which moreover do not implement the rule of the shorter term. Côte d'Ivoire has a general copyright term of 99 years and Honduras has 75 years, but they do implement that rule of the shorter term.