18 FEBRUARY 1944, Page 22

Sickert. Edited by Lillian Browse, with an Essay on his

Life and Notes

' on his Paintings and with an Essay on his Art by R. H. Wilenski. (Faber and Faber. 2 is.) LILLIAN BROWSE has written a most admirable concise and informa- tive account of Sickert's life and it is well supplemented by R. H. Wilenski's essay on his importance as an artist. Mr. Wilenski quotes a mot by Sickert on Whistler : "His talent evolved that something new which justifies an artist for his existence" and comes to the conclusion that it applies also to Sickert himself, and nobody is likely to quarrel with this verdict. In addition to these two essays there are sixty-two illustrations of Sickert's paintings in black and white, and a frontispiece in colour, which give a very fair and repre- sentative idea of his work.