ART 18|21

Mortimer Menpes (1855-1938)

Australian born artist, Mortimer Menpes, arrived in London in 1875. Together with Walter Sickert, Menpes was tutored and influenced by James McNeill Whistler, the American born artist whose controversial work rocked late-19th-century London sensibilities. Menpes first came into contact with Whistler just after the latter had returned from Venice. During the 1880's Menpes shared a flat with Whistler at Cheyene Walk in London where Whistler taught him the art of etching. At the outbreak of the Boer War in 1900 Menpes was sent as a war artist to South Africa. In 1902 he travelled widely around the East including China, Burma, India and Egypt where the images for these dry-point etchings were made. Consistently of high quality Menpes’ gritty realism and precise view points both separate and draw the viewer to the scenes he depicts.