Etching by Walter Sickert of the Gallery of the Old Bedford Music Hall, Camden, ca. 1910, signed on the mount.

Artist Walter Sickert (1860-1942) was fascinated by the music hall. He spent much of his career in the Camden area of London and the Bedford Music Hall there became a frequent subject of his paintings, drawings and prints. The Bedford, which opened in 1861, was a popular place of entertainment where a host of stars performed, including 'Queen of the Halls' Marie Lloyd. The building was demolished in 1898 and replaced by a new, larger, Bedford with improved sightlines and electric lighting. Sickert painted and drew both theatres, often focusing on small sections of the auditorium. One view of the Old Bedford's gallery-goers, first painted in the mid 1890s, was reworked again and again, appearing in oil paintings, drawings, etchings and magazine illustrations. It shows a group of soberly-dressed men, who gaze down from 'the gods' on the right hand side of the composition and are reflected in a large mirror behind the ornamental plasterwork on the left. This signed etching, which has been dated to a series made around 1910, reverses the image, putting the audience on the left, and omits the reflections in the mirror.