The Sitwells

John Singer Sargent, The Sitwell Family, 1900. Private collection. From left: Edith Sitwell (1887–1964), Sir George Sitwell, Lady Ida, Sacheverell Sitwell (1897–1988), and Osbert Sitwell (1892–1969).
Group photograph with four clean-shaven white men and one woman in full-length frock
In 1926: left to right Osbert, Edith, Sacheverell, William Walton, and, with the Façade megaphone, Neil Porter of the Old Vic.
Blue plaque on Wood End in Scarborough, one of the family homes of the Sitwells

The Sitwells (Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell), from Scarborough, North Yorkshire and the family seat of Renishaw Hall, were three siblings who formed an identifiable literary and artistic clique around themselves in London in the period roughly 1916 to 1930. This was marked by some well-publicised events, notably Edith's Façade with music by William Walton, with its public debut in 1923. All three Sitwells wrote; for a while their circle was considered by some to rival Bloomsbury, though others dismissed them as attention-seekers rather than serious artists.[1]

  1. ^ Pearson, John. Facades: Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell (1978)