Walter Richard Sickert, A.R.A. (Munich 1860-1942 Bath)

'Rowton House was the name given to several working men's hostels in London. Montagu William Lowry (1838-1903), Lord Rowton, conceived the scheme and put up the initial £30,000 which enabled the first Rowton House to open in Vauxhall in 1892. More hostels followed where, for 6d a night, a lodger received a bed and clean sheets, had the use of a kitchen, wash rooms, foot baths and hot water. Sickert's Old Heffel probably lodged in the King's Cross Rowton House (opened in 1894) or in the Camden Town Rowton House (opened in 1905), which is still operating as Arlington House. 'Old Heffel' was presumably a beggar fiddler' (W. Baron, Sickert Paintings and Drawings, New Haven and London, 2006, p. 432).

There is a larger version of the present work, which also once belonged to Barnard Falk and was sold in these Rooms in 18 November 1955, lot 57. It was purchased by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand.