Le mont de Neuville Dieppe - Blue Sky

'Le mont de Neuville Dieppe — Blue Sky' from 1887 is one of Sickert's earliest Dieppe paintings, made during the period when his relationship with Whistler was still close and when the influence of French Impressionism on his work was being most actively absorbed. 1887 was an important year for Sickert: he was twenty-seven years old, had recently completed his stint as Whistler's studio assistant, and was developing the independence that would eventually lead to his rupture with Whistler's dominant personality. The Dieppe subjects of this period show Sickert working through the legacy of Whistler's delicate tonal painting and of Degas's oblique, cropped compositions, finding his own language within and against these powerful influences. 'Blue Sky' in the title foregrounds the chromatic and meteorological observation that outdoor plein-air painting demanded. The hill (mont) of Neuville is a specific topographical reference that anchors the work in Dieppe's actual geography. Sickert's early Dieppe works are somewhat more tentative than his later confident canvases of the town, and this relative tentativeness has its own value as historical document — we can trace in them the formation of one of British art's most distinctive voices. The Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse holds significant works by artists connected to the Franco-British artistic exchange of this period.

Oil on canvas from Sickert's early period, showing the influence of Whistler in its tonal delicacy and of Degas in its compositional approach. The handling is somewhat more hesitant than his mature work, the paint applied with less of the thick, textured confidence of his Camden Town period. The sky passage demonstrates his early engagement with the variable quality of northern Atlantic light.