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Description: | The British artists Charles Ricketts (1863 Ã- 1937) and Charles Shannon (1866 Ã- 1931) shared a unique life and a love for art together since they first met as students in 1880. Ricketts was known as a book and typographic designer, theatre designer, sculptor and painter, whilst Shannon was a painter and lithographer.
Together, Ricketts and Shannon amassed a large and varied collection of Ã-exquisite thingsÃ, filling the houses where they lived together. Oscar Wilde, a frequent visitor, remarked that theirs was Ãthe one house in London where you will never be bored.Ã'
Jacques-Emile Blanche (who painted a famous portrait of the pair) wrote that their collection contained Ã-Persian miniatures, Tangara figures, Egyptian antiques, jewels, and medals, which millionaires had overlooked.Ã' Ricketts was seen as especially canny at recognizing undervalued works, also using this ability to advantage as an advisor to the National Gallery of Canada. The pair also owned Classical antiquities, Persian ceramics, Japanese prints, English drawings and those by Titian, Tintoretto, Rubens and Rembrandt, and works by contemporary artists.
Shannon had visited the Fitzwilliam in 1918 and was much taken with its collection. He also had a good personal friendship with Sydney Cockerell, Director of the Museum from 1908 and 1937. So, when Shannon passed away in 1937 a large proportion of the one thousand item collection he had built up with Ricketts was bequeathed to the Fitzwilliam Museum. They also left works of their own manufacture or relating to themselves, such as books published by their private publishing venture the Vale Press. Other items went to other museums and galleries.
Just over one hundred Egyptian pieces were included within this bequest, many of which can be seen on display. These were purchased during the pair's trips to Egypt, first in 1911 and later in 1914, although the exact provenance of the pieces is not always known. Notable artefacts from this group include the wooden statuette fragment of an official of Dynasty 12 and a collection of wood and ivory Bes figures. | Subjects: | Ceramics Gems Fine arts Lithographs Paintings Egyptology Lithography Miniature paintings Drawings | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | FAX: | 01223 332 923 | Telephone: | 01223 332 900 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:8373 | Go to resource |
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