{{Short description|Group of English Post-Impressionist artists}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}} {{Use British English|date=July 2015}} [[File:Walter Sickert photo by George Charles Beresford 1911.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Walter Sickert]]]] The '''Camden Town Group''' was a group of English [[Post-Impressionism|Post-Impressionist]] artists founded in 1911 and active until 1913. They gathered frequently at the studio of painter [[Walter Sickert]] in the [[Camden Town]] area of [[London]].

==History==

In 1908, critic [[Frank Rutter]] created the [[Allied Artists Association]] (AAA), a group separate from the [[Royal Academy]] artistic societies and modelled on the French [[Salon des Indépendants]]. Many of the artists who became the Camden Town Group exhibited with the AAA.

[[File:Harold Gilman 001.jpg|thumb|left|[[Harold Gilman]]. ''Mrs Mounter at the Breakfast Table'', 1917]] The members of the Camden Town Group included [[Walter Sickert]], [[Harold Gilman]], [[Spencer Gore (artist)|Spencer Frederick Gore]], [[Lucien Pissarro]] (the son of [[France|French]] [[Impressionism|Impressionist]] painter [[Camille Pissarro]]), [[Wyndham Lewis]], [[Walter Bayes]], [[J. B. Manson]], [[Robert Bevan (artist)|Robert Bevan]], [[Augustus John]], [[Henry Lamb]], [[Charles Ginner]], and [[John Doman Turner]].

Influences include [[Vincent van Gogh]] and [[Paul Gauguin]] whose work can clearly be traced throughout this group's work. Their portrayal of much of London before and during [[World War I]] is historically interesting and artistically important.<ref>Spalding, ''Dictionary of British Art'', vol. VI, pp. 19-22</ref> [[File:Mare-and-Foal.jpg|thumb|right|[[Robert Polhill Bevan]]. ''Mare and Foal'', 1917]] ''In the Cinema'' by [[Malcolm Drummond]] is noted for its claustrophobic feeling. It is an interesting foil to the work of Sickert who painted many rowdy music hall scenes, including ''Gallery of the Old Mogul'' (also depicting the viewers of a film). Sickert's ''Ennui'' of 1914 is often considered the masterpiece of this group's work, with its portrayal of boredom and apathy in the mold of Flaubert and others.

The group organized the exhibition of [[Cubism|Cubist]] and Post-Impressionist paintings.

A major retrospective of the group's works was held at [[Tate Britain]] in [[London]] in 2008. The show did not include eight of the members, among them Duncan Grant, J. D. Innes, Augustus John, Henry Lamb, John Doman Turner, Wyndham Lewis and J. B. Manson, who was, according to Wendy Baron, of "too little individual character".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Lambirth|first1=Andrew|title=Velvet revolutionaries|url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/2008/03/velvet-revolutionaries/|accessdate=13 March 2016|work=[[The Spectator]]|date=5 March 2008}}</ref>

==Members== [[File:Manson-Lucien-Pissaro-Reading.jpg|thumb|[[J. B. Manson]]. ''Lucien Pissarro Reading'', est. 1913]] It was decided that there should be a 16-member, men only, limit on the group: [[Maxwell Gordon Lightfoot]] died after the first exhibition, and [[Duncan Grant]] was elected to take his place.<ref>Baron, Wendy and Sickert, Walter. ''Sickert: Paintings and Drawings'', p. 81, Yale University Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-300-11129-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-300-11129-3}}. Available on [https://books.google.com/books?id=4S5K_DSH4hgC&pg=PA508&dq=Sickert:+Paintings+and+Drawings,+p.+81&sig=ACfU3U1BfOSDOFz3KnByGFMIJNDNnIoikQ#PPA81,M1 Google books].</ref>

*[[Walter Bayes]] *[[Robert Bevan (artist)|Robert Bevan]] *[[Malcolm Drummond]] *[[Harold Gilman]] *[[Charles Ginner]] *[[Spencer Gore (artist)|Spencer Frederick Gore]] *[[Duncan Grant]] *[[James Dickson Innes]] *[[Augustus John]] *[[Henry Lamb]] *[[Wyndham Lewis]] *[[Maxwell Gordon Lightfoot]] *[[J. B. Manson]] *[[Lucien Pissarro]] *[[William Ratcliffe, artist|William Ratcliffe]] *[[Walter Sickert]] *[[John Doman Turner]]

Although women were excluded from the Camden Town Group, a few women artists like [[Ethel Sands]], [[Anna Hope Hudson]] and [[Marjorie Sherlock]] were involved on the periphery; others, like [[Sylvia Gosse]], were cut out altogether.<ref>Ian Chilvers, [https://www.questia.com/read/74370572 ''A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100417003059/http://www.questia.com/read/74370572 |date=17 April 2010 }} (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 110.</ref>

==See also== [[File:Hartington square.JPG|thumb|[[Spencer Gore (artist)|Spencer Gore]]. ''Hartington Square'']] * [[Frank Rutter]] * [[John Doman Turner]] * [[The London Group]]

==Notes and references== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== *Wendy Baron, ''Perfect Moderns: A History of the Camden Town Group'', Ashgate, 2000 {{ISBN|978-1840142914}} *Robert Upstone, ''Modern Painters: The Camden Town Group'', exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London, 2008 {{ISBN|1-85437-781-7}} *Helena Bonett, Ysanne Holt, Jennifer Mundy (eds.), ''The Camden Town Group in Context'', Tate, May 2012, http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/camden-town-group

==External links== * [http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/camden-town-group Camden Town Group in Context at Tate] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080305020845/http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue12/camdentown.htm James Beechey on the Camden Town Group] * [http://johndomanturner.com John Doman Turner]

{{Camden Town Group}} {{Walter Sickert}} {{Authority control}}

[[Category:British artist groups and collectives]] [[Category:Post-Impressionism]] [[Category:English art]] [[Category:Camden Town]] [[Category:History of the London Borough of Camden]]