Unseen in public for over sixty years, Cliffs at Dieppe, painted circa 1922, forms part of the artist’s final ‘Dieppe period’ of 1919-1922, which Dr Wendy Baron has described as ‘among the most productive of Sickert’s career’. (Dr W. Baron, Sickert: Paintings and Drawings, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2006, p. 109).

Several of the artist’s earliest paintings dating from circa 1885 show the Normandy port town, including The Harbour, Dieppe, now in Leeds City Art Gallery (Baron, cat. no. 29). The artist had married Ellen Cobden in 1885 and the newly married couple spent the summer in Dieppe where his parents and Whistler were among the house guests. Sickert then moved to Dieppe from London in the winter of 1898 and did not return until 1905. Finally, in 1919, he returned and settled at the village of Envermeu, outside the town, with his second wife Christine Angus.

Whilst many painters visited and worked in Dieppe, it was Sickert who immersed himself in documenting every aspect of the town in an obsessive manner, from its streets, churches, old houses and nightlife to the environs of the historic Le Pollet district, as depicted in this oil. The town was considered his second home after London, and between 1898-1905 was his primary residence.

Dr Wendy Baron has identified the location. The Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours chapel, built in 1876, can be seen on the eastern cliff top. This beautiful, stone chapel was erected in memory of sailors lost at sea. Beneath this is the harbour of Le Pollet, with the rigging of a boat appearing above the quayside.

We are grateful to Dr Wendy Baron for confirming the authenticity and location of this painting.

Mr Henry Jeremy Renton, by 1962, thence by descent
Private collection, U.K.