One unbroken stream

Taking as its starting point the observation made by the painter Walter Richard Sickert: ‘there is no such thing as modern art. There is no such thing as ancient art… History is one unbroken stream’, this display comprises portraits by five major artists: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Edgar Degas, Sickert, David Bomberg and Frank Auerbach, to reveal a chain of teacher-pupil relationships spanning a century. With two works lent by the National Gallery, this fascinating display explores how an artistic ethos involving drawing, observation and memory was transmitted across five generations of artists.