Jack the Ripper: Case Study

Lesson 6: A look at Pat Cornwell's book: Portrait of a Killer and Suspect Walter Sickert

Dead Prostitutes and The Sickert Paintings

Later in life, Sickert told friends he had once stayed in a house where the landlady claimed Jack the Ripper had also once lived. She said she knew his identity, that Jack the Ripper was a sickly student who had died in an asylum. A series of paintings were done by Sickert in the Camden Town residence where Sickert believed Jack the Ripper had also once lodged.

The rumor that Sickert might be the Ripper stems from this series of dark paintings, the Camden Town Murders, which he painted in 1908-1909. These dark works, which were painted twenty years after the "Autumn of Terror", appear to hold some uncanny similarities to the Ripper's crimes.

Some of the similarities of Sickert's paintings to the Ripper crimes are included in the photographs in the center of Cornwell's book. These include the following:

• A sketch called Venetian Studies which depicts a woman with eyes wide open which vaguely resembles the dead face of Mary Ann Nichols.
• A painting called "He Killed his Father in a Fight" is believed to have similarities to the Mary Kelly murder scene.
• Perhaps more convincing is the painting "Putana a Casa", in which the mutilations of a woman's face bear a noted resemblance to the mortuary photographs of Catherine Eddows.
• In the background of the painting "Ennui", a man coming up behind a woman in the painting in the background is reminescent of a Jack the Ripper type stalker.
• Jack the Ripper's bedroom is perhaps the most haunting of them all.

If Sickert did have a sick and twisted side, there is no real proof that he ever took it to the extreme of murder. Artistic license comes to play in creative works. Many authors and artists, including Cornwell herself, explore the dark side of human nature without experiencing it firsthand as a killer.

It's altogether possible Sickert was fascinated with the Ripper crimes so much he purposefully incorporated elements of them into his paintings. Experts besides Cornwell believe some of the similarities could have been based on crime scene photos Sickert actually saw; other similarities could have been due to stories he had heard here and there, and to the vivid imagination of an artist.

Suggested Reading: Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper: Case Closed. Chapter 10

For a look at some Sickert paintings that relate to the Camden Town Murders and to see some of his Dance Hall paintings go to The Sickert Gallery

To view Ennui go to the Tate Collectons

View Jack the Ripper's Bedroom

Casebook: Jack the Ripper

Patricia Cornwell and Walter Sickert: A Primer by Stephen P. Ryder

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