LONDON - Walter Richard Sickert was one of the most important British artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Germany and raised in England, he became known as the father of modern British art, having introduced Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to a younger generation of British painters. The exhibition is curated by Robert Upstone, Curator of Modern British Art at Tate Britain. On exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery from 4 march through 31 May, 2009.

Having trained under James McNeill Whistler, Sickert made repeated visits to Venice, starting in 1895; creating some of his most ravishing impressionist work. He painted many scenes of Venetian architecture including St Mark's Basilica (the cathedral of Venice) and the Rialto Bridge.

During subsequent visits Sickert moved the object of his attention first into alleyways, and then indoors and began experimenting with the concept of ambiguous figures in interiors, forcing the viewer to speculate about the nature of what they were looking at. Through his pairing of female figures – the Venetian prostitutes, La Giuseppina and La Carolina, sometimes dressed, sometimes nude – Sickert discovered an approach to the subject that formed the basis of his art for his remaining career.

In 1911 Sickert founded the Camden Town Group, enlarged and renamed the London Group three years later. Among the original members were Lucien Pissarro and Spencer Gore (who were exponents of the Neo-Impressionist, or Pointillist style that Sickert adopted for a time), Augustus John, and Henry Lamb, all of which were accustomed to meet in his studio. Among the members of the enlarged group were Jacob Epstein and Paul and John Nash.

Sickert became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1924 and an academician ten years later. But shortly afterwards he resigned in protest against the hostile attitude of the president toward the work of Epstein. In 1941 Sickert was honored with a one-man exhibition at the National Gallery in London. The next year he died in Bath, England, on January 22.

The exhibition is divided into a number of themes to demonstrate the range and development of Sickert’s Venetian: Views & Vistas, Nocturnes, and Portraits & Figures.

Dulwich Picture Gallery is England’s first public art gallery: it was founded in 1811 when Sir Francis Bourgeois RA bequeathed his collection of old masters “for the inspection of the public”. Visit : http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/#non