LITTEN, Sidney Mackenzie
Very little is known about the elusive British artist, Sidney Mackenzie Litten. The impressionist and modern artist, who was born in England in 1887, studied art at St. Martin’s School of Art and studied etching at the Royal Commonwealth Society under Frank Short. He was the Senior Master of St. Martin’s School of Art in London.
He exhibited at the Royal Academy and the New English Art Club. Completing the bulk of his etchings in Spain and Italy, 51 of his prints are recorded in the annual Fine Prints of the Year. Like his contemporaries Whistler and McBey, Litten did his etchings in series’ such as his images of the River Thames images and his two sets of four prints each featuring the cityscape and canals of Venice. Venice was the subject of fifteen etchings, exhibited until 1935, at which time Litten appears to have quit etching.
Sydney Mackenzie Litten was the father of the artist Maurice Sydney Litten (1919-1979).
Sydney Mackenzie Litten died in London in 1934, though many sources list his death in 1949. No catalogue raisonné exists of the artwork of Sidney Mackenzie Litten.
