RICKETTS, Charles

(b. 1866 Genève, d. 1931 London)

Charles de Sousy Ricketts was an English painter, graphic artist, artist craftsman, known for his work as a book designer and typographer and for his costume and scenery designs for plays and operas. He grew up in France and moved to England in 1879, where he started an apprenticeship with a wood engraver and cutter in London. There he met William Morris and joined the Pre-Raphaelite circle. From 1889 to 1897 Ricketts and Charles Shannon (1863-1937) published the Art Nouveau periodical The Dial.

In 1896 the two friends set up the Vale Press, a printing works that specialized in luxury book editions for which Ricketts did many of the illustrations. He also worked for the magazine The Hobby Horse and in 1922 became a member of the Royal Academy.

In his graphics, Ricketts developed his own style, with generous curved lines akin to French Art Nouveau, although one can also clearly detect the influence of Aubry Vincent Beardsley.

Ricketts was also successful with his stage sets and metalwork.

Costume design

After 1918 Ricketts turned to theatre design, producing colourful and technically brilliant costumes and sets for, among others, George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan (1924). The picture shows a costume design for Tremouille in Shaw’s play Saint Joan.

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Frontispiece to 'The Dial'

The magazine The Dial was published by Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon in an attempt to bridge the gap between tradition - printing inspired by the Middle Ages - and Art Nouveau’s graphic forms of expression. Woodcuts printed in The Dial in 1893 were referred to as “an experiment in line”.

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