It depicts a darkly lit bedroom hypothetically owned by Jack the Ripper, the culprit of at least five of London's Whitechapel murders in 1888.

At the time of painting Jack the Ripper's Bedroom, he lived in a flat at 6 Mornington Crescent, Camden Town, North London.

[12] When Sickert rented the flat, his landlady, Mrs. Louisa Jones, had told him she suspected the previous tenant, who lived there in 1888, was the Ripper.

The Manchester Art Gallery's description of the painting says the indistinction makes "it conceivable that there is a person sitting on the [center] chair, but there is no one there.

"[2][9][10] In 6 Mornington Crescent, the doorway to the bedroom's hallway was located at the back of the house, connected to the first-floor front room.

[9] Author Wendy Baron, writing for the Yale University Press, calls the painting "moody" and "sinister", and highlights Sickert's talent for composing melodrama.

Joseph Sickert revealed in 1978 that the story supposedly told by Walter was a hoax, but the theory still grew in popularity.

[19] Author Jennifer Dasal says the art world "by-and-large" has "scoffed at the assertion of Walter Sickert as Jack the Ripper".

[15] Dasal says it's reminiscent of "those who willingly pay to stay in the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast in Fall River, Massachusetts—the frisson of being connected to a killer, however loose, is a huge draw".