Little Dot Hetherington at the Old Bedford or The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery, in some cases, the painting is referred to as Joe Haynes and Little Dot Hetherington at the Old Bedford Music Hall, is an oil on canvas painting by British Post-Impressionist painter Walter Richard Sickert, from 1888–1889. The canvas is in a private collection in Monte Carlo.
Little Dot Hetherington at the Old Bedford belongs to the early period of Walter Sickert's work, when he was influenced by his acquaintance with the French Impressionist Edgar Degas. It depicts the performance of a young singer, known as Dot Hetherington, at the Old Bedford Music Hall in London in November 1888. The theme, an artist's power over the feelings and thoughts of the audience, and individual motifs, such as the depiction of the scene not directly but as a reflection in mirrors, from Dot Hetherington's Babes in Old Bedford, were motifs the artist repeatedly explored in his later works of the late 1880s and 1890s. This painting is believed to be the first in Sickert's oeuvre to feature reflections in mirrors.
Walter Sickert subsequently reproduced Little Dot Hetherington at the Old Bedford as a fan painting and as a lithograph. Art historians at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, along with other researchers, argue that the painting of Old Bedford in its collection is paired with Tiny Dot Hetherington. For nearly 150 years, the painting has drawn the attention of art historians, cultural historians, and scholars of Victorian Britain and British musical theatre. It has been exhibited numerous times at prestigious national and international exhibitions.
History Walter Sickert By 1888, under the influence of Edgar Degas, Walter Sickert had developed his own version of impressionism, characterized by a rather gloomy palette. Sickert painted in the studio, working from sketches made from life and memory, perceiving his art as an escape from the "tyranny of nature". Between 1887 and 1892, in a significant series of paintings depicting the music hall, Sickert explored themes central to his work: the actress on stage, the interaction between performer and audience, and unconventional angles under artificial lighting. Anna Grunzner Robins noted that, when working on scenes set in the interior of a music hall, Sickert typically attended performances and took a seat in the fourth row from the back of the parterre. Following the practices of Edgar Degas —whose influence Sickert acknowledged in the preface to the catalogue of the Impressionist exhibition he organized in London in 1889— he created small pencil sketches of performers, musicians, and audience.Another characterisation of the artist's work on sketches is given by Patricia Cornwell: "When Sickert sat in the music hall, right next to the stage [!] and made his sketches, he was far from perfecting his technique. He drew heads separated from necks, arms without hands, a torso without arms, naked thighs, a torso without limbs with breasts protruding from deep necklines"- These sketches served as the foundation and references for the intricate oil paintings he later completed in his studio.
In 1888, Walter Sickert joined the New English Art Club, which positioned itself in opposition to the conservative Royal Academy of Arts. The club comprised artists who had worked in France and were influenced by contemporary trends there. Sickert's first acclaimed works, created in the late 1880s, depicted scenes from London's music halls. However, his canvases often faced rejection from art critics of the time, who accused them of being ugly and vulgar. This criticism stemmed largely from the subject matter, as Victorian public opinion equated music hall actresses with prostitutes.In the late 20th century, Sickert was repeatedly suspected of the murders of prostitutes between August and November 1888, which were attributed to the never-exposed serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. In particular, such suspicions were raised by Stephen Knight in his book Jack the Ripper: The Final Conclusion, Jean Overton Fuller in her book Sickert and the Ripper's Crimes. In the early 20th century, accusations against Sickert for the murders of 1888 and 1907 were made by novelist and crime writer Patricia Cornwell in her books Jack the Ripper. Who is he? Portrait of a Murderer and The Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert.
Historical representation The location of Tiny Dot Hetherington at the Old Bedford is the Old Bedford Music Hall, situated at 93–95 High Street in the London borough of Camden Town. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Camden, with its canals and railway, was regarded by many as a relatively prosperous area. The neighborhood housed affluent citizens and skilled workers employed in newly established factories, including those producing pianos, which lent the area a distinctly musical character. The Old Bedford Music Hall was built in 1861.Walter Sickert and the Bedford Music Hall. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Архивировано 28 July 2017. However, British cultural historian and University of Edinburgh professor Christopher Brouard has described Camden at the time as a poor, working-class neighborhood that was dysfunctional and unsafe.
For Walter Sickert, the bright and colorful music halls were a microcosm of modern life — a mirror of the bustling metropolis. He had a deep passion for theatrical performances, having briefly worked as an actor himself. Sickert often dressed in stage costumes, adopting what he believed to be different personalities. He first visited the Old Bedford Music Hall in 1885, later referring to it as "my old love". The venue allowed him to blend seamlessly with the crowd, while the close proximity of the audience to the stage enabled him to observe his favorite performers up close. Sickert's paintings and sketches capture the interior of the auditorium, including its mirrors, decorations, performances, and audience. Among these works is the painting titled Tiny Dot Hetherington at the Old Bedford. The modern theater that Sickert painted, with its large gilt mirrors, gas lamps, and orange-and-blue color scheme, was demolished in 1898 to make way for the construction of the New Bedford Music Hall. In the 1910s, the New Bedford became a favorite haunt of the artists known as the Camden Town Group, including Walter Sickert. The New Bedford Music Hall was also frequented by writer Virginia Woolf, and Charlie Chaplin performed there. By 1929, a young Peter Sellers was living above the theater while his mother performed on the music hall stage. By the time Sellers began his career as an entertainer, the halls were only half-full, as audiences were increasingly drawn to film, television, and radio over live performances. The New Bedford Music Hall finally closed in 1959, and a decade later, its building was demolished.
A little singer (Little Dot Hetherington) stands on the stage of a music hall during a performance of the song The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery, which was popular in the second half of the 1880s. The girl points with her hand toward the gallery — the top tier of the auditorium, where the cheapest seats are located. There sits the object of her affection. The spectator views the scene from the auditorium, their gaze directed over the parterre seats and past the Benoir box on the right. It is generally believed that the viewer does not see Dot Hetherington herself in the painting, but only her reflection in one of the large mirrors that adorned the interior of the music hall. The audience depicted in the painting are also reflections in these mirrors.
The artist highlights the fragility of the young singer's "little white figure". Wendy Baron observed that, with the exception of the woman in the large feathered bonnet, the audience for the performance is entirely male. Sickert depicted the audience with attention to their social differences, age, and occupation — for instance, some wear top hats, while others wear only mobcaps. Baron also noted that, in 1885, an editorial on the front page of the Pall Mall Gazette brought public attention to the exploitation of underage prostitutes in Britain. The ensuing scandal led to the legal age of sexual consent being raised from 13 to 15.The researcher emphasized that the male figures in Little Dot Hetherington at the Old Bedford appear far more sinister than the idealized "boy in love" referenced in the song sung by the girl, a detail reflected in the painting's later title.
William Rough, PhD in art history, believed that the painting was an attempt by the artist to convey the power the young singer was gaining over the auditorium as she performed. He noted that the music hall building was cramped and unassuming, and mirrors were installed to create the illusion of a larger space. In the background of the painting, on the right, a male figure watches the girl on stage from backstage. Wendy Baron speculated that this could be an adult accompanying the girl to the performance or the next performer waiting for his turn. There is also a man seated in a box near the stage. This figure, like the girl, is reflected in a second mirror located at the far left of the composition (outside the canvas itself) and then repeated in the right-hand mirror. Rough argued that this use of reflections balanced the painting's symmetry while also "upsetting the balance" of reality and illusion as perceived by the audience. British artist and art historian Eric Shanes observed that Sickert's use of mirrors forced viewers to question both the reality depicted in the painting and the nature of reality itself.
The technique of Little Dot Hetherington at the Old Bedford is oil on canvas, with dimensions of 61 × 61 cm. The artist's signature, Siskert, is located in the lower right-hand corner.
Provenance and exhibitions The painting was purchased at Christie's on 28 March 1930 by Dr. Robert Emmons (1894–1963), an admirer of the artist. The Art News reported that it was bought for 520 guineas. The painting is currently held in the private collection of Emmons' heir, Hamilton Emmons, in Monte Carlo.Walter Richard Sickert // European drawings and watercolors in the Yale University Art Gallery, 1500—1900 New Haven and London: Yale University Art Gallery by Yale University Press, 1970. P. 145. However, Eric Shanes identified another collector, Jeoffrey Verdon-Roe, as the owner of the painting.
Dr. Robert Emmons, a friend and pupil of Walter Sickert, was an American with a private medical practice in London during the 1920s. Over time, painting evolved from a hobby into a profession for him. In October 1927, he enrolled at the Sickert School of Art, located at 1 Highbury Place in Islington. Emmons gained recognition as a painter, exhibiting his work at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1928 and 1932. He was also the author of The Life and Opinions of Walter Richard Sickert, the first biography of the artist, published in 1941 — the year before Sickert's death. Additionally, Emmons was an avid collector of Sickert's works and frequently lent paintings from his collection to Sickert's solo exhibitions.Upstone R. (2009-05). Walter Richard Sickert. Girl at a Window, Little Rachel, 1907. Tate Research Publication.