Charles Ricketts - Costume Design for a Tray Bearer

Charles Ricketts - Costume Design for a Tray Bearer

£4,500

CHARLES DE SOUSY RICKETTS, RA

(1866-1931)


Costume Design for a Tray Bearer


Signed with initials l.r.: CR

Watercolour over pencil

Framed


32 by 23.5 cm., 12 ½ by 9 ¼ in.

(frame size 53 by 44 cm., 21 by 17 ¼ in.)


Provenance:

Peter Farley


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.


This costume design comes from the collection of Peter Farley, the theatre designer, curator, writer and teacher, celebrated for his innovative approach to the stage.  After studying Theatre Design at Wimbledon School of Art, he became a part of the thriving arts scene in 1970s London, running a gallery called the Artists’ Market in Covent Garden alongside artist Vera Russell, and working for many years with stage designer Yolanda Sonnabend on a variety of design projects for theatre, opera and ballet.


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