The Raising of Lazarus

Walter Sickert
Britain
1860 – 1942

The Raising of Lazarus
1929
oil on wallpaper, detached then laid on canvas
Currently on display, Gallery 13
Place made
Islington, England
Geographical location
Greator London
Medium
oil on wallpaper, detached then laid on canvas
Dimensions
243.5 x 91.5 cm
267.0 x 114.5 x 9.0 cm (frame)
Credit line
Gift of William Bowmore AO OBE through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 1990
Accession number
905P7
Signature and date
Not signed. Not dated.
Provenance
Therese Sickert (nee Lessore), Bathampton until 1945; Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, New York. Lillian Browse, London. William Bowmore, O.B.E., Somersby, NSW, early 1970s-1990.
Media category
Painting
Collection area
British paintings

  • WALL LABEL: The raising of Lazarus

    This work represents the Biblical story of the raising of Lazarus, as told in the Gospel of St John. Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, was summoned from death after three days, a prefiguring of the culminating narrative of the death and resurrection of Christ himself.

    Sickert painted this large and vigorous study directly onto a piece of red wallpaper in his studio, which he subsequently squared and transferred onto the finished canvas, now held in the National Gallery of Victoria. The work began its life as a photograph of the artist and his friend and fellow artist, Cicely Hey, carrying a wooden artist’s model up the stairs of Sickert’s London studio, with Sickert casting himself in the role of Christ.

    Tansy Curtin, Curator of International Art Pre-1980


  • A Celebration: Recent Acquisitions of Heritage and Contemporary Art

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 30 August 1996 – 22 September 1996