Charles de Sousy Ricketts
- Overview
- Extended Catalogue Entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Charles de Sousy Ricketts
by Charles Haslewood Shannon
chalk, 1899
11 3/4 in. x 7 3/4 in. (298 mm x 197 mm)
Purchased, 1933
Primary Collection
NPG 2631
Sitterback to top
- Charles de Sousy Ricketts (1866-1931), Painter, designer and art collector. Sitter in 8 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Charles Haslewood Shannon (1863-1937), Painter and lithographer. Artist or producer of 11 portraits, Sitter in 12 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This sensitive drawing was made shortly after the critical success of the oil portrait of Ricketts. Shannon noted in his diary that it was a study for a double portrait of the pair. The introspective feel of the drawing is at odds with descriptions of Ricketts's restless and eloquent manner but perhaps hints at the loneliness and pessimism that some detected beneath his charismatic exterior. During this period, he was researching his book, The Prado (1903) and later wrote an evocative account of the pair's artistic hero, Titian (1910).
Linked publicationsback to top
- Rogers, Malcolm, Master Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery, 1993 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 5 August to 23 October 1994), p. 143
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 523
Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top
- Ricketts and Shannon: A creative partnership (28 March 2009 - 18 October 2009)
Events of 1899back to top
Current affairs
George Nathaniel Curzon, Lord Curzon, is appointed Viceroy of India, pursuing a mixed policy of forceful control and conciliation. Curzon's inquiries into Indian administration result in legislation in areas including education, irrigation, and policing. The Board of Education is created to co-ordinate the work of higher grade elementary schools, county technical schools and endowed grammar schools, also setting up a register of teachers.Art and science
The Italian Guglielmo Marconi transmits the first wireless telegraph, between France and England across the English Channel, a distance of 32 miles. Marconi's production of waves over long distances lays the foundations for the development of the radio. Later this year, Marconi demonstrates his invention in America, at the Cup yacht race, and for the American navy.International
Outbreak of the second Boer war, fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. Despite a disastrous start, Britain quickly won the war, although guerilla warfare continued until 1902, leading to the introduction of concentration camps by British commander Lord Kitchener, a measure which contributes to the British public's growing disillusionment with the campaign.Comments back to top
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