Charles de Sousy Ricketts

1866 - 1931

Rickets began studying wood engraving in London where he met a fellow student, Charles Shannon who became is lifelong companion and artistic collaborator. He first made his mark as a book illustrator and then as the founder and driving force of the Vale Press (1896-1904). Following a disastrous fair at the printers he turned increasingly to painting, sculpture and theatre design. His close relationship with the theatre dated from his friendship with Oscar Wilde in the 1890s. He was involved in the design of costumes and sets for more than fifty productions, most notably: Arnold Bennett’s Judith (1919); Oscar Wilde’s Salome (1919); Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan (1924); Cecil Lewis’s Montezuma (1925) and D’Oyly Carte’s The Mikado (1926). A great art connoisseur, he and Shannon built up a substantial collection which included Old Master and Pre-Raphaelite Paintings and Drawings and Japanese and Persian works of art. Over 1,000 objects from the collection were bequeathed to the Fitzwilliam Museum after the death of Shannon in 1937.