Mamma Mia Poveretta
Walter Richard Sickert 1860 - 1942
Summary
A half-length frontal portrait of a gaunt, elderly Venetian woman, wrapped in a dark shawl and wearing a headscarf. Her head is turned slightly to the right, and her face is lit from the left.
Display Label
Gallery text panel Tradition and Experiment Early Twentieth-Century Art 1900 - 1939. In Britain, the beginning of the 20th century coincided with the end of the Victorian age. Artists and designers experimented, challenging traditional ways of seeing and making; now trying to create a new art for a modern era. In painting, it was often traditional subject matter such as portraits, landscapes and interiors that would be tackled in new ways. The bustle and the brutality of urban life was an inspiration or something to escape from. Boundaries became increasingly blurred between design and decoration, painting and making and individual expression replaced academic authority. Art was made to be affordable and at a scale that would fit into ordinary homes. Some called the celebration of the modern into question after the horrors of the First World War. Traditional imagery was simplified or became childlike and slowly broke down into fragmented visions. Dream and chance tapped into subconscious anxieties and in 1939, world war intervened once again.
Object Name
Mamma Mia Poveretta
Creators Name
Date Created
1901-1906
Dimensions
unframed: 46cm x 38.2cm
framed: 65cm x 57.3cm
accession number
1911.103
Place of creation
Dieppe
Support
canvas
Medium
oil paint
On Display
[BG] Manchester Art Gallery - Balcony Gallery
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Legal
© Manchester Art Gallery
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