Charles Ricketts

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Charles Ricketts photographed by George Charles Beresford on October 13, 1903

Charles Ricketts (born October 2, 1866 in Geneva , † October 7, 1931 in London ) was a British painter , craftsman , sculptor , wood cutter , typographer , book designer , set designer , costume designer , art writer and art collector .

Life

Charles Ricketts, son of an Englishman and a Frenchwoman, grew up in France and Italy. Already an orphan in 1882, he attended the City and Guilds of London Art School in Lambeth . William Rothenstein admired the six-year-old boy’s quick wits. It was there in school that Charles Ricketts met the later painter and lithographer Charles Haslewood Shannon (1863-1937). The partnership lasted a lifetime. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes advised them to live in England.

Together with Shannon, Ricketts founded the private printing company Vale Press in 1894 . The company existed until 1904. The magazine The Dial was published among others . This came on the market by 1897.

Alongside Aubrey Beardsley , Ricketts was one of the illustrators of Oscar Wilde's work .

Together with T. Sturge Moore and later with the barrister William Llewellyn Hacon (1860-1910) Ricketts was extremely productive for years; For example, he prepared the printing of 75 books - including 39 Shakespeare volumes - for Ballantyne Press. In addition, Ricketts worked 1894-1914 for Eragny Press - a printing company owned by Lucien Pissarro and his wife.

From 1902 Ricketts worked more often as a painter and sculptor. Some of his paintings hang in London ( The Death of Don Juan ), Paris ( The Plague ) and Manchester ( Montezuma ).

Ricketts was an art collector and art writer. He was elected an Associate Member in 1922 and a Full Member of the Royal Academy in 1928. In 1929 he became a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission (founded in 1924). Ricketts was a member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers .

As a stage designer, Ricketts was a guarantee of success with his costume ideas, according to The Times . For example, he worked for the following performances: Salome (1906), Attila by Laurence Binyon (1907), King Lear (1909), The Dark Lady of the Sonnets by Shaw (1910), Judith by Arnold Bennett (1916), Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress by Shaw (1918), The Betrothal by Maurice Maeterlinck (1920), Saint Joan of Shaw (1924), Macbeth (1926) and The Coming of Christ by John Masefield (1928). In the theater sector he also worked outside of London. He prepared performances of Yeats and Synge plays at the Abbey Theater in Dublin .

As a designer, Ricketts found recognition in the 1920s for the designs for the two operettas The Gondoliers and The Mikado . His client was Rupert D'Oyly Carte .

The Russian tenor Wladimir Rosing introduced Ricketts to the fighter pilot Cecil Lewis . Ricketts promoted the rise of the First World War pilot to later Oscar- winning screenwriter. After Ricketts' death, Lewis published his abandoned letters.

Ricketts bequeathed a villa to Lewis in Arolo on Lake Maggiore during his lifetime . Lewis scattered some of his patron's ashes in their park.

Post fame

Michael MacLennan (* 1968) brought the piece Last Romantics to the stage in 2003 , which was nominated for the Governor General's Awards in its premiere year. The main role is played by Ricketts' and Shannon's Circle of Friends with Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley and Michael Field in the spotlight.

Fonts (selection)

  • The Prado and its Masterpieces (1903)
  • Titian (1910)
  • Pages on Art (1913)
  • Beyond the Threshold (1929, as Jean Paul Raymond)
posthumously:
  • Oscar Wilde: Recollections (1932, as Jean Paul Raymond)
  • Self-Portrait (1939)

literature

  • JG Paul Delaney: Charles Ricketts. A biography . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1990, ISBN 0-19-817212-5

Web links

Commons : Charles Ricketts  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The dial in the Internet Archive
  2. ↑ John Ballantyne (1774-1821)
  3. ↑ 1890–1963, Russian Владимир Сергеевич Розинг.
  4. ^ The art of the Prado
  5. ↑ Titian
  6. ↑ Pages on Art
  7. ↑ Beyond the Threshold NLA entry
  8. ^ Oscar Wilde, recollections - memories
  9. ↑ Self-Portrait
personal data
SURNAME Ricketts, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ricketts, Charles de Sousy; Ricketts, Charles S .; Raymond, Jean Paul (pseudonym); Ricketts CS; Ricketts, Charles De Sousy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter, craftsman, sculptor, wood cutter, lithographer, book designer, set designer, costume designer, art writer and art collector
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 1931
Place of death London