Lot 4: Spencer Frederick Gore (1878-1914)

Spencer Frederick Gore (1878-1914)
Alhambra Ballet
pencil and pastel
8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm.)

Gore alongside Sickert had a long-standing fascination for the music hall. Sickert preferred the Bedford Theatre, whereas Gore's favourite music hall was the Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square which specialised in ballets, acrobatic stage acts and solo singers. He was a regular visiter to the theatre on Monday and Tuesday evenings and drew several sketches. The present work is made from the theatre circle above the orchestra pit. It is a similar angle to the oil painting Inez and Taki of 1910 in the Tate Gallery (see R. Upstone, Modern Painters: The Camden Town Group, London, 2008, p. 78).