''Brighton Pierrots'' is a 1915 painting by

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

that depicts an outdoor theatrical performance. It is an oil on canvas measuring 63.5 x 76.2 cm and is in the

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...

. In the painting, the

Pierrot Pierrot ( , ; ), a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell'arte, has his origins in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a hypocorism, diminutive of ''Pierr ...

s are seen from the side and slightly from behind. A few spectators' faces can be seen as well as empty deckchairs. The red evening sky is vivid, a reminder of a conflagration, a distant fire. Born in 1860, Sickert was too old either to enlist or be conscripted in 1914. He experienced the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

at a distance and in 1915 painted the unsettling ''Brighton Pierrots''.

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

at that time was a holiday town with no sense of holiday; the young men were away, and the distant sound of gunfire could be heard from across the Channel. Sickert's painting's subject matter is of the attempt to 'Keep Merry and Carry on', shadowed by an air of desperation. The artist painted two versions of the subject. The first is now at the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

, Oxford. The second, in Tate’s collection, was commissioned by the barrister

William Jowitt William Allen Jowitt, 1st Earl Jowitt, (15 April 1885 – 16 August 1957) was a British Liberal Party, National Labour and then Labour Party politician and lawyer who served as Lord Chancellor under Clement Attlee from 1945 to 1951. Backgr ...

and his wife. The paintings are practically identical apart from small variations in composition and appearance.nicola moorby brighton pierrots
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References

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External links

tate.org brighton pierrots

nicola moorby brighton pierrots

chris stephens discusses brighton pierrots

bbc.co.uk programmes

study for brighton pierrots liverpool museum
English paintings Paintings by Walter Sickert 1915 paintings Paintings in the Tate galleries Sussex in art Oil on canvas paintings