Reclining Nude, Mornington Crescent
- Artist: Walter Richard Sickert
- Date: 1905
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is the “Reclining Nude, Mornington Crescent” by Walter Richard Sickert, painted in 1905. Sickert worked in a cramped lodging room at 6 Mornington Crescent, a part of Camden Town that was far from glamorous. The scene is very literal: a woman lying on a cheap sofa, the floor a dark patch of peeling wallpaper, the lighting low and almost moody.
What makes this piece stand out is the way Sickert refuses to romanticise the body. The line work is sketchy, almost hurried, yet it has a curving grace that keeps the figure believable. The light that filters through the narrow window catches on the curves of the skin, giving a delicate glimmer that tempers the otherwise oppressive environment.
The painting reflects a broader trend in Sickert’s decade-long series of nudes in shabby surroundings. He wasn’t just depicting a body; he was commenting on the underbelly of London life—poverty, loneliness, the raw human experience. The unidealised treatment offended many conventional tastes of the time, but it also opened a door to a more honest, gritty realism that would influence later modernists.
So, as you look at this canvas, notice how the sketchy strokes, the muted palette, and that small pocket of light together create an immediacy that feels almost alive, as if the sitter has just dropped off and you’ve caught the moment of her repose.
See it in person
Reclining Nude, Mornington Crescent hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
