Walter Sickert: 7 Surprising Facts About the Painter, Teacher, and Jack the Ripper Suspect

Born in Munich in 1860, Walter Sickert moved to London at age 8 and became a leading British Impressionist. The son of Danish painter Oswald Sickert and Eleanor Henry, he was the eldest of six siblings. Initially an actor, he turned to painting after less than three years on stage. He studied under James McNeill Whistler, whom he assisted, and later in Paris under Edgar Degas, who inspired his shift to music halls, dancers, and urban scenes. In 1883, Whistler sent him to Paris with a parcel for Degas. Sickert married three times; his first wife divorced him for infidelity. He founded the Camden Town Group, a collective of British Post-Impressionists influenced by Degas, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. His paintings often featured nude women with clothed men, and some researchers link this to childhood surgeries for a birth defect. Known as a shapeshifter, he kept secret London rooms and changed his appearance and persona frequently. He is also a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888; he painted Camden Town Murder and Jack the Ripper's Bedroom. In 1927, he painted Winston Churchill and gave him painting lessons. He legally changed his first name to Richard and died in 1942.