Walter Richard Sickert, 1860–1942, British, born in Germany
Title:
The Camden Town Murder, or What Shall We Do for the Rent?
Date:
ca. 1908
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
10 1/16 × 14 inches (25.6 × 35.6 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Copyright Undetermined
Accession Number:
B1979.37.1
Gallery Label:
The dueling titles of this ambiguous scene suggest two possible scenarios: a murder, or an exchange of sexual favors for money. The painting belongs to a series Sickert made after the 1907 homicide of Emily Dimmock, a sex worker, in Camden Town, London. The case quickly became tabloid fodder, appealing to the British public’s appetite for stories of sex and violence. Sickert uses the conventions of mid-Victorian genre painting – scenes of everyday life that deliver lessons — not to offer viewers moral reassurance but to render them mere voyeurs. The second title, which the artist added later, suggests that this painting can also be read as a commentary on the living conditions of the working class. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025