‡Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)

‡Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)

Passers By

Inscribed "Passers by" (lower right)

Watercolour and bodycolour on blue paper

11.6 x 19cm

Unframed

Provenance:

Siegfried Sassoon;

And by family descent

In this work, the clouds take the form of the three Sitwell siblings, Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell. Sassoon first came into contact with them in 1917, when Edith wrote to him to express her support for his protest against the war. Edmund Gosse once suggested Sassoon marry Edith, but Sassoon replied, 'I don't think poets should marry one another'. Sitwell relied on Sassoon for criticism of her work, and once told him 'you are the only person who has ever done anything at all for my poetry'. Sassoon was initially close to the siblings, in particular Edith, but relations became increasingly strained and difficult over time.