Did Jack the Ripper paint this? New painting by Walter Sickert emerges after 80 years
A previously unknown painting by Walter Sickert - the artist believed by author Patricia Cornwell to be Jack the Ripper - is set to fetch up to £60,000 when it goes under the hammer next month.
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The Blind Sea Captain, left, is thought to have been painted by Walter Sickert, right, during the summer of 1914 in Dieppe Photo: GETTY
10:43AM GMT 21 Feb 2011
The work, entitled The Blind Sea Captain, has only emerged once before - with no title except a label on the back - at an exhibition 80 years ago.
Sickert, who Patricia Cornwell has investigated at length and named as the serial killer, was notorious for his paintings of nudes.
Four of these were controversially entitled The Camden Town Murder, after a well publicised and gruesome murder of a prostitute in 1907.
But this gained him attention and he became a prominent member of the Camden Town Group of artists.
The Blind Sea Captain is far more sentimental in theme, but in the outbreak of World War One it would have been an appropriate subject for Sickert.
It is thought to have been painted during the summer of 1914 in Dieppe, France, and is described by Bonhams as 'typical of Sickert's proficiency as a master of mood and allusion.'
Wendy Baron,who has devoted her life to studying Sickert's work, was astounded to find a painting by him that she had never seen.
She said he has created "an imaginary glimpse into the lives of a man broken by blindness who, but for the devotion of his old mother or wife, would be destined for the workhouse."
An unfinished sketch in oil on canvas, dated 1912, known as The Old Soldier has been extensively catalogued and had previously thought to be the extent of Sickert's work on this subject.
However, Ms Baron adds: "Until The Blind Sea Captain emerged from a private collection in Scotland a few months ago, I had found nothing during 58 years spent studying Sickert's paintings to suggest that he had ever returned to this subject...It's rediscovery is thus especially exciting."
When it emerged, untitled, at the exhibition in Bradford in 1930, it had been lent by Sir Cyril Kendall Butler, a collector of contemporary art at the time.
But it is still unknown when Butler bought the painting and, having been seen briefly in 1930, it disappeared for 80 years.
Matthew Bradbury, director of 20th century British art at Bonhams, said: "It is very rare these days to find a large and finished oil by Walter Sickert which Dr Wendy Baron has not previously seen.
"Not since 1991, when the company sold a 1914 oil of a Belgian soldier, has a work of this date depicting a figure appeared on the open market. We are especially pleased therefore to be handling the sale of this canvas, which is in super condition."
The painting is from a private collection, inherited by the vendor from her grandfather.
It is one of the highlights of the 20th Century British Art Sale in New Bond Street on 9th March.
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