Literature: Baron 2006, 151.1, illustrated.
Provenance: Mark Oliver, Sale, Christie's London, 30 June 1933, lot 122;
J.L. Behrend, Sale, Christie's London, 14 December 1973, lot 182;
R. Buckle, Sale, Christie's London, 22 February 1980, lot 46;
Sale, Christie's South Kensington, 25 March 2009, lot 63;
Private Collection.
Exhibitions: London, Redfern Gallery, Early Paintings Walter Sickert, December 1937, no. 41;
London, Leicester Galleries, Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture by Artists of Fame and Promise, August 1941, no. 4;
London, Leicester Galleries, The J.L. Behrend Collection, 1962, no. 3.
"In the spring 1899, Sickert's official address was 9 Quai Henri IV. He was not yet divorced. In August 1899 (after his divorce in July) Sickert moved in openly to the Maison Villain in Neuville, on the outskirts of Dieppe, where his mistress, Augustine Villain, the red-haired doyenne of the Dieppe fishmarket, lived with her brood of children. He stayed there until the early summer of 1902, when he rented a place of his own in Neuville. He kept this house in Neuville until 1912, when he and his second wife acquired a house in Envermeu, outside Dieppe, to which they moved the following year." (Baron 2006, pp. 255-256) The garden featured a brick pedestal behind which a path curves in front of a hedge. "The bust of Nero is set on the brick pedestal which stands without adornment in Baron 2006, 151. The little panel with the bust of Nero, entirely painted in purples and greens, could have been painted at any time between 1903 and 1906." (Baron 2006, p. 256).
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