Below, this recently passed through Christies, ' Walter Sickert, sketch for Soldiers of King Albert the Ready'. It would seem that this also is 'Jo', whose death in WWI is described by a witness to Walter Sickert's life, Marjorie Lilly.
Perhaps regular military wear around Jo's waist in the newly surfaced sketch, or a sketch book there, girded to his waist. Its resemblance to a sketch book stands out from the other military wear in this way. In the top figure there, a soldier lain a young child asleep, rather than a young man dead, isn't he, with his fulsome arm up by the side of his head.
One of these soldiers might be a soldier who died and then was buried in Jo's place, or Walter Sickert might be referencing a brother to Jo.
Marjorie Lilly, a witness to Walter Sickert's life upon whom experts rely, appears to have met the boy 'Jo' when he was in his early twenties, in 1914. She wrote the following story in her book 'Walter Sickert, the Painter and his Circle' about an experience in 1914:
...' A Special Protege of Sickert's was a boy called Joe; I never knew his surname or whether he possessed any talent for painting. An ex-pupil from the Westminster, he was now a soldier, waiting to be sent to France. There was something very moving about Joe with his round, candid face, his shock of fair hair, and his shy friendly smile; he had such a great capacity for happiness. Whenever he could get leave he would be present on Wednesday's with his girl; sitting side by side, they seldom spoke, and he had no eyes for anyone but the Master. He worshiped Sickert....It was enough for him just to be there, listening and watching, in an ecstasy of wonder. ...
..But Joe was sent to France and in a few weeks he was lying dead with a bullet through his brain.
Christine wrote to his girl and asked her to come and see us on Wednesdays, just as before. The girl answered by thanking Christine for the invitation but she was sure we'd understand, she didn't want to see Fitzroy Street or any of us, ever again.
After Sickert heard of the death of Joe he shut himself up for three days and would not open his door. When he emerged, he never spoke of Joe and no one dared to mention his name.'
Quotation taken from 'Sickert, The Painter and his Circle', Marjorie Lilly, Elek London, 1971.
Marjorie Lilly's book began to be distributed in wide circulation in 1971. Joseph Gorman, later, in 1972, 'Joseph Sickert' publicly emerged, correctly claiming that he was Walter Sickert's grandson via Walter's love affair with Annie Crook and their daughter Alice Margaret who was born to the couple in 1885. In 1969 Joseph Sickert had already visited the Lessores, and told them he thought he was Walter Sickert's grandson. In 1974 Joseph Sickert received a 'visit' from certain socialites who told him he was in fact the grandson of Prince Eddy, which ostensibly he is not, and that Alice Margaret was the daughter of Prince Eddy and the child at the centre of the Whitechapel murders, which ostensibly she was not. Coincidence? Or were people covering up the lost prince Jo's existence?
Oh...... look, in the Walter Sickert sketch above, which purportedly contains two practise runs of dying 'Jo' for the painting, the sketch drawn first, at the base of the sketch paper, has no bullet at the side of the head, but the one at the top, in which you can see the tenderness of the sketch, (the boy's lain down like a sleeping child) you can see a mark resembling a bullet wound at the side of his brain. In the painting rendition you can see a bullet wound on the right side of the soldier's head, and you can see the pool of blood above his forehead there.
Wendy Baron has gone into the painting a little, here. She concludes that Walter Sickert must have called the Belgian King Albert 'the ready', and remarks that Walter's acquaintance Robert Emmons (who decided that Walter got the idea for the painting from a newspaper) indicated that the painting perhaps extols Belgian heroism in respect of a particular incidence against German invaders of Liege. The Emmons/Baron statement could have been the official version of the painting at the time, in 1914. ( Of course, Walter Sickert, while WWI was going on, being a 'kind of novelist painter', according to his Camden Town and NEAC acquaintance, was so inspired by the little Belgian town of Liege, and felt such a peculiar attachment to it, having never been there in all his life, he couldn't wait to get paint to canvas!..
You can see that the background on the right side of the painting is a battlefield, while the background on the left denotes another scenario, perhaps some sort of prison, the Paris Temple Prison where Louis XVII was held in the 1790s, or a workhouse in London. There are bars on the window shown, and there's a barrel beneath said window. There are cobble stones, possibly Fitzrovia cobblestones on the ground. They look very much like the Charlotte Street paving stones that you can still see today.
Or could the scenario to the left of the painting represent wars that Ireland or Scotland had been involved in of times past? Or French revolutionary wars?
You can see that the background on the right side of the painting is a battlefield, while the background on the left denotes another scenario, perhaps some sort of prison, the Paris Temple Prison where Louis XVII was held in the 1790s, or a workhouse in London. There are bars on the window shown, and there's a barrel beneath said window. There are cobble stones, possibly Fitzrovia cobblestones on the ground. They look very much like the Charlotte Street paving stones that you can still see today.
Or could the scenario to the left of the painting represent wars that Ireland or Scotland had been involved in of times past? Or French revolutionary wars?
Why has Walter painted 'Jo 'with a sketch book girded on as he lies dying, or 'not dying'....? Perhaps an artist's reference to Jo's own sketches, or to his father Prince Eddy's sketches. Did 'Jo' take his sketches with him to war, or is it figurative, to suggest he was an artist at heart, even while dying? Or while 'not dying'?
The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone
In the ranks of death you will find him.
His father's sword he hath girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him.
......( the song repeated the 'will ye neer come back again' theme:...)
The Minstrel Boy will return we pray
When we hear the news we all will cheer it,
The minstrel boy will return one day,
Torn perhaps in body, not in spirit.
Then may he play on his harp in peace,
In a world such as Heaven intended,
For all the bitterness of man must cease,
And ev'ry battle must be ended.
* An interesting video below showing film reconstructs of wars that Ireland has been involved in over the ages. 'The Minstrel Boy'.
* An interesting video below showing film reconstructs of wars that Ireland has been involved in over the ages. 'The Minstrel Boy'.
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