This is one of a group of six pictures that Sickert painted of two Belgians, Jeanne and Hélène Daurmont, during the Easter holiday in 1906. Jeanne, a milliner, later recalled that she and her sister, a charwoman, had met the artist in London when he overheard them speaking to a policeman in French. The subdued palette, softly smudged outlines, and direct approach to the model anticipate the artist's later Camden Town style, for which he is best known.
At Easter time 1906 Sickert sent his friend Mrs. George Swinton several postcards with sketches of paintings he was working on. One of them depicts this picture and is inscribed: Easter Monday No.1. Jeanne (private collection).
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Cigarette (Jeanne Daurmont)
Artist:Walter Richard Sickert (British, Munich 1860–1942 Bathampton, Somerset)
Date:1906
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Mary Cushing Fosburgh, 1978
Object Number:1979.135.17
Inscription: Signed (lower right): Sickert-
the artist, London (1906–9; sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 21, 1909, no. 62, as "La cigarette"); J. W. Freshfield, London (in 1939); R. Thesiger (until 1950); [Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, 1950; sold in July to Astor]; Mrs. Vincent Astor, later Mrs. James W. (Mary Cushing) Fosburgh, New York (1950–d. 1978)
Paris. Bernheim-Jeune. "Exposition Sickert," January 10–19, 1907, no. 81 (as "La cigarette").
Adelaide. National Art Gallery. "Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art," August 21–September 17, 1939, no. 195 (as "Girl with Cigarette," lent by J. W. Freshfield, Esq., London) [see Chanin and Miller 2005].
Melbourne. Town Hall. "Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art," October 16–November 1, 1939, no. 195 (as "Girl with Cigarette," lent by J. W. Freshfield, Esq., London).
Sydney. David Jones's Art Gallery. "Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art," November 20–December 16, 1939, no. 195 (as "Girl with Cigarette," lent by J. W. Freshfield, Esq., London) [see Chanin and Miller 2005].
Hobart. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. April 10–29, 1945, no catalogue [see Chanin and Miller 2005].
Launceston Art Gallery. May 24–June 7, 1945, no catalogue [see Chanin and Miller 2005].
Brisbane. Queensland Art Gallery. August 15–October 15?, 1945, no catalogue [see Chanin and Miller 2005].
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture Collected by Yale Alumni," May 19–June 26, 1960, no. 125 (as "Girl with a Cigarette," lent by Mr. and Mrs. James W. Forsburgh).
Washington. Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building. "Selections from a Special Collection," September 19–October 26, 1984, no. 28 (as "Jeanne Daurmont [The Cigarette]").
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Sickert: Paintings," November 20, 1992–February 14, 1993, no. 51.
Amsterdam. Van Gogh Museum. "Sickert: Paintings," February 25–May 31, 1993, no. 51.
London. Tate Britain. "Walter Sickert," April 28–September 18, 2022, unnumbered cat. (colorpl. 74, as "Jeanne. The Cigarette").
Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris. "Walter Sickert: Peindre et transgresser," October 14, 2022–January 29, 2023, unnumbered cat. (colorpl. 74, as "Jeanne. The Cigarette").
Everett Parker Lesley, ed. Catalogue of the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. James Fosburgh. 1955, p. 78, calls it "Girl with a Cigarette"; dates it about 1905, based on a 1955 letter from Arthur Tooth and Sons.
Wendy Baron. Sickert. London, 1973, pp. 87, 89, 182, 339, no. 221, fig. 155, calls it "Jeanne. The Cigarette"; identifies the sitter as one of two Belgian sisters who sat for Sickert for about three months, erroneously spelling their last name "Daurment"; dates it 1906, citing postcards that Sickert sent in Easter of that year to his friend Mrs. George Swinton with sketches of pictures that he was currently working on, including one of this subject; notes that this profile composition recalls Sickert's Venetian portraits.
Wendy Baron in Wendy Baron and Malcolm Cormack. The Camden Town Group. Exh. cat., Yale Center for British Art, Yale University. New Haven, 1980, p. 54.
Wendy Baron. Letter to Lucy Oakley. May 4, 1980, notes the correct spelling of the sitter's last name; describes two BBC broadcasts, one in 1960 during which Stanley Smith discussed the sitter and one in 1961 incorporating an actual interview with Daurmont; states that although Daurmont could not recall smoking during a sitting, as depicted in our painting, she was quite old with a faulty memory at the time of the interview.
Wendy Baron inSickert: Paintings. Ed. Wendy Baron and Richard Shone. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1992, pp. 41, 170, 172–73, 207, no. 51, ill. (color), notes that it is a rare portrait by Sickert of a woman smoking; comments that "Jeanne Daurmont claimed she was a milliner, her sister Hélène a charwoman. Sickert's paintings suggest a slightly racier life-style"; reproduces the sketch of this subject (Brown and Darby, London).
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 211, ill.
Eileen Chanin and Steven Miller. Degenerates and Perverts: The 1939 Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art. Carlton, Australia, 2005, pp. 183, 218–19, 273, 276, no. 195, ill. (color), call it "Jeanne: Cigarette"; note that it was probably for sale during the Herald exhibition in Australia [Exhs. Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney 1939].
Wendy Baron. Sickert: Paintings and Drawings. New Haven, 2006, pp. 58–59, 128, 318–19, no. 263, ill., calls it "Jeanne. The Cigarette"; based on the fourteen postcard sketches sent to Mrs. Swinton, notes that Sickert's first sitting on Easter Monday was for this picture; quotes the sitter's recollection of posing for the artist: "'When I am tired he gave me cigarettes, and he say, stop a few minutes, ah, he was a dear good man'"; also catalogues two paintings in which Jeanne Daurmont posed with her sister Hélène, and two portraits which may represent either Jeanne or Hélène (nos. 256, 261, 264, 265); states that Bernheim-Jeune purchased it from the artist on June 14, 1907 and that it remained unsold at the 1909 auction [see 1979 letters from Bernheim-Jeune in archive file asserting that they did not own the painting, although it may have been among those kept "en réserve" by Sickert at his framers and then sold at auction].
Wendy Baron inWalter Sickert. Ed. Emma Chambers. Exh. cat., Tate Britain. London, 2022, p. 168 [French ed., Paris, 2022], as "Jeanne. The Cigarette".
Caroline Corbeau-Parsons inWalter Sickert. Ed. Emma Chambers. Exh. cat., Tate Britain. London, 2022, p. 93, as "Jeanne. The Cigarette" [French ed., Paris, 2022].
Kaye Donachie inWalter Sickert. Ed. Emma Chambers. Exh. cat., Tate Britain. London, 2022, no. 74 (color) [French ed., Paris, 2022], as "Jeanne. The Cigarette".
Jeanne and Hélène Daurmont were Belgian sisters who modeled for Sickert for three months during the spring of 1906. Jeanne's reminiscences of this period were profiled by the BBC in 1960 and 1961 (see Baron 2006 and Matthew Sturgis, Walter Sickert: A Life, London, 2005, pp. 361–62, 714 nn. 9–11).
A sketch of this painting, showing the model clothed, was sent to Sickert's friend, Mrs. George Swinton, at Easter 1906 (Browse and Darby, London, in 1992).
Walter Richard Sickert (British, Munich 1860–1942 Bathampton, Somerset)
ca. 1916
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