Introducing: The Camden Town Group

Taking their name from a rather disheveled area of North London, the Camden Town Group was formed by British Post-Impressionist painters in 1911. Walter Sickert was the group’s most important figure and his Camden Town studio provided a regular meeting place for other members, which included Harold Gilman, Robert Bevan, Spencer Frederick Gore, Charles Ginner and Lucien Pissarro. They were united by their rejection of the traditionalist and highly idealized paintings shown at the Royal Academy. They also shared an interest in the innovations of Van Gogh and Gauguin, evident from their use of thick impasto paint and vivid non-naturalistic colouring. Whether their pictures were of Camden Town street scenes, seedy interiors, music halls, still lifes or portraits, their emphasis always lay with ordinary people going about their everyday lives. A mere two years after their first exhibition at the Carfax Gallery, the group had dissolved by November 1913. In its place, they formed the London Group by merging with various other smaller art associations. Despite its short existence, the Camden Town Group had proved instrumental in exposing Britain to European modernism.