Dimensions: support: 508 x 406 mm frame: 695 x 595 x 45 mm
Copyright: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have Walter Sickert’s painting, “Off to the Pub.” It's difficult to place the date, but the browns and ochres give it a feeling of old world charm. What symbolic meanings do you find in it? Curator: Sickert's recurring use of music hall and pub settings is interesting. These spaces become stages reflecting the psychological landscape of the urban experience, capturing a shared cultural memory of leisure and social interaction. Editor: So, the pub becomes more than just a location? Curator: Precisely. It is a theatre where identities are performed and observed, echoing themes of alienation and connection that resonate across time. Sickert seems to be documenting how symbols persist and evolve, shaping our understanding. Editor: I never thought of it that way. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sickert-off-to-the-pub-n05430
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Through the poses of the figures and title, Sickert evokes the aftermath of a domestic row. The woman’s clasped hands and steady gaze suggest hurt emotions and resignation, while her husband takes refuge by leaving for the pub. The male model is ‘Hubby’, whose real name is unknown. A reformed alcoholic, he joined Sickert in 1911 to help around the studio and modelled for a number of pictures. When Hubby turned to drink again in 1914, Sickert had to dismiss him. He wrote ‘It is like death, only worse, and I will miss his kind silly old face and his sympathetic pomposity’. Gallery label, February 2004
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