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{{short description|British artist, illustrator, author and printer}}
{{for|the Australian rules footballer|Charlie Ricketts}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
[[File:Charles de Sousy Ricketts by Charles Haslewood Shannon.jpg|thumb|Ricketts by his partner [[Charles Haslewood Shannon|Charles Shannon]]. The [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]] says of this portrait, "It is a record of their friendship, slightly tentative in its character, with Ricketts turning his head away so that he is seen in profile. He liked it precisely for this reason since it shows him 'turning away from the 20th century to think only of the 15th.'"<ref>[https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw05336/Charles-de-Sousy-Ricketts "Charles de Sousy Ricketts"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104034715/http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw05336/Charles-de-Sousy-Ricketts |date=4 January 2016 }}, National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 1 November 2019</ref>]]

'''Charles de Sousy Ricketts''' {{Post-nominals|post-noms=[[List of Royal Academicians|RA]]}} (2 October 1866 – 7 October 1931) was a British artist, illustrator, author and printer, known for his work as a book designer and [[typographer]] and for his costume and scenery designs for plays and operas.

Ricketts was born in [[Geneva]] to an English father and a French mother and brought up mainly in France. In 1882 he began studying [[wood engraving]] in London, where he met a fellow student, [[Charles Haslewood Shannon|Charles Shannon]], who became his lifelong companion and artistic collaborator. Ricketts first made his mark in book production, first as an illustrator, and then as the founder and driving force of the Vale Press (1896–1904), one of the leading private presses of the day, for which he designed the type and illustrations. A disastrous fire at the printers led to the closure of the press, and Ricketts turned increasingly to painting and sculpture over the following two decades.

In 1906 he also began a career as a theatre designer, first for works by his friend [[Oscar Wilde]] and later for plays by writers including [[Aeschylus]], [[Hugo von Hofmannsthal]], [[William Shakespeare]], [[George Bernard Shaw|Bernard Shaw]], and [[William Butler Yeats|W. B. Yeats]]. His most enduring theatre designs, which remained in use for more than 50 years, were for [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s ''[[The Mikado]]''. With Shannon, Ricketts built up a substantial collection of paintings, drawings and sculpture. He established a reputation as an art connoisseur, and in 1915 turned down the offer of the directorship of the [[National Gallery]]. He later regretted that decision, but served as adviser to the [[National Gallery of Canada]] from 1924 until his death. He wrote three books of art criticism, two volumes of short stories and a memoir of Wilde. Selections from his letters and diaries were posthumously published.

==Life and career==
===Early years===
Ricketts was born in [[Geneva]], the only son of Charles Robert Ricketts (1838–1883) and Hélène Cornélie de Soucy (1833 or 1834–1880), daughter of Louis, Marquis de Soucy. He had a sister, Blanche (1868–1903). His father had served as a First Lieutenant in the [[Royal Navy]] before being invalided out at age 25 due to wounds.<ref>Delaney (1990), p. 5</ref> It was an artistic household: his father was an amateur painter of marine subjects, and his mother was musical.<ref name=dnb>Delaney, J. G. P. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-35746 "Ricketts, Charles de Sousy (1866–1931), artist and art collector"], ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Oxford University Press 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2019 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> Ricketts spent his early childhood in [[Lausanne]] and London, and his early teens in [[Boulogne]] and [[Amiens]]. Except for a year at a boarding-school near [[Tours]] he was educated by [[governess]]es.

Hélène Ricketts died in 1880 and her widower moved to London with his two children. Ricketts was at that stage hardly able to speak English.<ref name=dnb/> His biographer Paul Delaney writes that the boy was considered "too delicate to attend school", and consequently was largely self-educated, "reading voraciously and 'basking' in museums; he thus escaped being moulded along conventional lines".<ref name=dnb/>

[[Image:Charles Haslewood Shannon; Charles de Sousy Ricketts by George Charles Beresford.jpg|thumb|left|[[Charles Haslewood Shannon]] and Ricketts by [[George Charles Beresford]]]]
In 1882 Ricketts entered the [[City and Guilds of London Art School|City and Guilds Technical Art School]] in [[Kennington]], London, where he was apprenticed to Charles Roberts, a prominent wood-engraver. The following year Ricketts's father died, and Ricketts became dependent on his paternal grandfather, who supported him with a modest allowance.<ref name=dnb/> On his sixteenth birthday he met the painter and lithographer [[Charles Haslewood Shannon]], with whom he formed a lifelong personal and professional partnership.<ref name=d2>Darracott, p. 2</ref> ''[[The Times]]'' described their relationship:
{{blockindent|... a lifelong friendship of so close a nature that from that time onwards the two shared the same studio and lived together in a state of celibate commensalism as remarkable as any of the great historic friendships, or the finest Darby and Joan examples of wedded felicity. It was seldom "I think" or "I do" in the Ricketts and Shannon ''ménage'', but almost invariably "We think" and "We do."<ref name=times>"Obituary: Mr Charles Ricketts", ''The Times'', 9 October 1931, p. 7</ref>|}}

===The Vale Press===
After concluding their studies at Kennington, the two men considered going to live and work in Paris, as several of their contemporaries had done. They consulted [[Pierre Puvis de Chavannes]], an artist they revered,{{refn|In a 2003 study of Ricketts, Emmanuel Cooper writes that the artist "identified with the ideals of the Aesthetic Movement", and was inspired by Renaissance art and such French artists as Puvis de Chavannes and [[Gustave Moreau]].<ref name=grove>Cooper, Emmanuel. [https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000072037 "Ricketts, Charles"], ''Grove Art Online'', Oxford University Press, 2003. Retrieved 1 November 2019 {{subscription required}}</ref>|group=n}} who advised them against it, considering the current trends of French art to be excessively naturalistic – "photographic drawing".<ref>Ricketts (1913), pp. 69–70</ref> Shannon, three years the senior, took a teaching post at the [[Croydon School of Art]], and Ricketts earned money from commercial and magazine illustrations.<ref name=dnb/>

[[File:House of Pomegranaes.jpg|thumb|Frontispiece for ''[[A House of Pomegranates]]'', 1891]]
In 1888 Ricketts took over [[James Abbott McNeill Whistler|James Abbott Whistler]]'s former house, No 1, The Vale, in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], which became the focus of contemporary artists.{{refn|Ricketts and Shannon's circle included [[Laurence Binyon]], [[John Gray (poet)|John Gray]], Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper (known jointly as [[Michael Field (author)|Michael Field]]), [[Lucien Pissarro]], [[William Rothenstein]] and [[Thomas Sturge Moore]], as well as [[Oscar Wilde]], who commented that Ricketts and Shannon's house was "the one house in London where you will never be bored."<ref>Brooks, Michael. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23098511 "Oscar Wilde, Charles Ricketts, and the Art of the Book"], ''Criticism'', vol. 12, no. 4, 1970, pp. 301–315. {{subscription required}}</ref>|group=n}} They produced ''The Dial'', a magazine devoted to art, that had five issues from 1889 to 1897. Among their circle was [[Oscar Wilde]], for whom Ricketts illustrated his books ''[[A House of Pomegranates]]'' (1891) and ''[[The Sphinx (poem)|The Sphinx]]'' (1894), and painted, in the style of [[François Clouet]], the hero of Wilde's short story, "The Portrait of Mr. W. H." used as the frontispiece of the book.<ref name=grove/> Ricketts and Shannon worked together on editions of "[[Daphnis and Chloe]]" (1893) and "[[Hero and Leander (poem)|Hero and Leander]]" (1894). Reviewing the former, ''The Times'' singled out the "beautiful type [and] the very charming woodcuts and initial letters with which it is enriched by two accomplished artists, Mr. Charles Ricketts and Mr. Charles Shannon, who are jointly responsible for the designs, while the actual woodcut execution is the work of Mr. Ricketts."<ref>"Books of the Week", ''The Times'', 23 June 1893, p. 8</ref>

Inspired by the work of [[A. H. Mackmurdo]] and [[William Morris]]'s [[Kelmscott Press]], Ricketts and Shannon set up a small press over which, according to the critic [[Emmanuel Cooper]], Ricketts exercised complete control of design and production.<ref name=grove/><ref>Osborne, p. 656</ref> He told [[Lucien Pissarro]] that he intended "to do for the book something in the line of what William Morris did for furniture".<ref name=wxxiii>Watry, p. xxiii</ref> Cooper writes that Ricketts designed founts, initials, borders and illustrations for the press, "blending medieval, Renaissance and contemporary imagery". His woodcut illustrations "often incorporated the swirling lines of Art Nouveau and androgynous figures".<ref name=grove/> The Vale Press, which existed between 1896 and 1904, published more than eighty volumes, mostly reprints of English poetic classics,<ref name=dnb/> and earned a reputation as "one of the big six amongst modern presses".{{refn|The others were the [[William Morris#The Kelmscott Press|Kelmscott]], [[Doves Press|Doves]], [[Ashendene Press|Ashendene]], Eragny, and Essex House Presses.<ref name=wxxiii/>|group=n}} Initially, Ricketts financed the Vale publications by inviting subscriptions, but in 1894 its finances were put on a more secure footing when he was introduced to a rich barrister, [[William Llewellyn Hacon]], who invested £1,000 and became Ricketts's business partner in the firm.<ref name=wxxiii/> A fire at the printers in 1904 destroyed the press's woodcuts, and Ricketts and Shannon decided to abandon publishing and turn to other work. They closed the Vale Press and threw the type into the river.<ref name=d8>Darracott, p. 8</ref> Ricketts marked the demise of the press by publishing a complete bibliography of its publications.<ref>Ricketts (1904), ''passim''</ref>  Thereafter, he occasionally designed books for friends such as [[Michael Field (author)|Michael Field]] (the joint pen name of Katherine Harris and Emma Cooper) and [[Gordon Bottomley]].<ref name=dnb/>

===Paintings and sculpture===
Ricketts increasingly turned to painting and sculpture. A later painter, Thomas Lowinsky, has commented on how different Ricketts's styles were as a book designer on the one hand and as a painter on the other: "his books expressed in their pre-Raphaelitism the English side of his character, whilst his pictures, with their debt to Delacroix and Gustave Moreau, the French".<ref name=dnb/> Delaney cites [[Symbolism (arts)#Visual arts|Symbolist]] influences, seen in his choice of themes: 
:tragic and romantic... focused on key moments in the destiny of his subjects, such as Salome, Cleopatra, Don Juan, Montezuma, and (though Ricketts was a non-believer) Christ, figures he admired for the way they courageously met their fates.<ref name=dnb/>

[[File:Charles Ricketts - The Wise and Foolish Virgins.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.5|''The Wise and Foolish Virgins'' (c. 1913)]]
Delaney ranks among Ricketts's best paintings ''The Betrayal of Christ'' (1904);{{refn|In the [[Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery]], [[Carlisle]].<ref name=dnb/>|group=n}} ''Don Juan and the Statue'' (1905) and ''The Death of Don Juan'' (1911);{{refn|In the [[Tate Gallery]] collection.<ref name=dnb/>|group=n}} ''Bacchus in India'' (c.1913);{{refn|In the [[Atkinson Art Gallery and Library]], [[Southport]]).<ref name=dnb/>|group=n}} '' [[Parable of the Ten Virgins|The Wise and Foolish Virgins]]'' (c. 1913);{{refn|In a private collection.<ref name=dnb/>|group=n}} ''The Death of Montezuma'' (c. 1915);{{refn|In a private collection.<ref name=dnb/>|group=n}} and ''The Return of Judith'' (1919), and ''Jepthah's Daughter'' (1924).{{refn|Both in the [[Ashmolean Museum]], [[Oxford]])<ref name=dnb/>|group=n|name=private}} At least one of Ricketts's paintings – ''The Plague'' – is in a continental gallery, the [[Musée d'Orsay]], Paris.<ref>[https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/collections/catalogue-des-oeuvres/notice.html?nnumid=21811 "Charles Ricketts: ''La peste''"], Musée d'Orsay. Retrieved 2 November 2019</ref> In Delaney's view, Ricketts's considerable scholarship was a mixed blessing as his deep knowledge of earlier painters sometimes inhibited his work, both as a painter and as a sculptor. The influence of [[Auguste Rodin|Rodin]] is seen in Ricketts's sculptures, which number about twenty and include ''Silence'', a memorial to Wilde. Delaney finds more power in Ricketts's bronzes, citing ''Orpheus and Eurydice'' ([[The Tate|Tate]] collection) and ''Paolo and Francesca'' ([[Fitzwilliam Museum]], [[Cambridge]]) as striking interpretations of their subjects.<ref name=dnb/> A contemporary critic remarked that despite their "unusually beautiful colour" and "curious but definite, half-literary, half-pictorial appeal", Rickett's paintings were "probably the least important and satisfactory part of the output of a man who was undoubtedly one of the most gifted, versatile, and outstanding in the world of art of his day".<ref name=mg1>"Charles Ricketts", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 19 December 1939, p. 5</ref>

In 1915 Ricketts was offered the directorship of the [[National Gallery]], but having controversial views on how the gallery's paintings ought to be shown he turned down the post, which he later regretted.<ref name=grove/> Although never formally employed by the gallery he was nevertheless consulted about some of the hangings of the rooms.<ref name=times/> He had been approached about letting his name go forward for nomination to the [[Royal Academy]] in 1905, but declined out of concern that Shannon might feel slighted.<ref name=d8/> Shannon was elected as a member in 1920, and Ricketts followed, as an associate member in 1922, and a full member in 1928.<ref>"Royal Academy", ''The Times'' 29 February 1928, p. 16</ref> In 1929 he was appointed a member of the Royal Fine Arts Commission.<ref name=times/> He was also a member of the [[International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers]],<ref name="Gla">[http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib2_1203018932 "The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130701230213/http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib2_1203018932 |date=1 July 2013 }}, ''Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951'', [[Glasgow University]], accessed 31 May 2013</ref> and served as art adviser to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa from 1924 to 1931.<ref name=dnb/>

===Theatre design===
Ricketts became a celebrated designer for the stage. "Mr Ricketts is infallible in his ideas on costume" observed ''[[The Times]]''.<ref>"The Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre", ''The Times'', 25 November 1910, p. 13</ref> His career as a theatre designer lasted from 1906 to 1931. He began by working on a double bill of Wilde plays – ''[[Salome (play)|Salome]]'' and ''[[A Florentine Tragedy]]'' – at the King's Hall, Covent Garden, given as a private production because Wilde's biblical drama was refused a licence for public performance.{{refn|The play starred "Miss Darragh" (Letitia Marion Dallas) as Salome, [[Robert Farquharson (actor)|Robert Farquharson]] as Herod, and [[Lewis Casson]] as Jokanaan.<ref>[https://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/news/wildes-salome "Wilde's Salomé"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101133203/https://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/news/wildes-salome/ |date=1 November 2019 }}, University College, Oxford. Retrieved 1 November 2019</ref>|group=n}} For the same company Ricketts designed [[Aeschylus]]'s ''[[The Persians]]'' in 1907, for which his costumes and scenery received considerably better notices than the play.<ref>"At the Play", ''The Observer'', 24 March 1907, p. 4; "The Literary Theatre Society", ''The Times'', 25 March 1907, p. 8; and "The Persians of Aeschylus", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 26 March 1907, p. 14</ref> For the commercial theatre during the 1900s Ricketts designed [[Laurence Binyon]]'s ''Attila'' (with [[Oscar Asche]] at [[Her Majesty's Theatre|His Majesty's Theatre]]), ''Electra'' by [[Hugo von Hofmannsthal|Hofmannsthal]] (with [[Mrs Patrick Campbell]] at the [[Noël Coward Theatre|New Theatre]], 1908), and ''[[King Lear]]'' (with [[Norman McKinnel]], at the Haymarket, 1909).<ref name=rsa>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/41357767 “Stage Designs by Charles Ricketts, R.A.”] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101134904/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41357767 |date=1 November 2019 }}, ''Journal of the Royal Society of Arts'', vol. 81, no. 4184, January 1933, p. 256</ref> During the 1910s he designed [[George Bernard Shaw|Bernard Shaw]]'s ''[[The Dark Lady of the Sonnets]]'' (1910), [[Arnold Bennett]]'s ''Judith'' (1916), and Shaw's [[Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress]] (1918).<ref name=times/>

{{multiple image |caption_align=center  | align = right  | direction = horizontal  | header_align = center  | footer_align = left  | image1 = Mikado Ricketts.jpg  | width1 = 193  | caption1 = Design for the title character in [[Gilbert and Sullivan|Gilbert{{space}}and{{space}}Sullivan's]] ''[[The Mikado]]''  | image2 = Charles Ricketts06.jpg  | width2 =150  | caption2 = Design for Tremouille in [[George Bernard Shaw|Shaw's]]{{space}}''[[Saint Joan (play)|Saint Joan]]''}}  
After the First World War Ricketts resumed his theatrical activity, and designed ''The Betrothal'', by [[Maurice Maeterlinck]] (with [[Gladys Cooper]]) at the [[Gaiety Theatre, London|Gaiety Theatre]] (1921), Shaw's ''[[Saint Joan (play)|Saint Joan]]'' (with [[Sybil Thorndike]]) at the New Theatre (1924), ''[[Henry VIII (play)|Henry VIII]]'' (with [[Lewis Casson]] and Thorndike) at the [[Empire, Leicester Square|Empire Theatre]] (1925) and ''[[Macbeth]]'' (with [[Henry Ainley]], Thorndyke and Casson) at the [[Shaftesbury Theatre|Princes Theatre]] (1926). In the same year he designed costumes and scenery for the [[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company]]'s production of ''[[The Mikado]]'' at the [[Savoy Theatre]], and did the same in 1929 for their ''[[The Gondoliers]]'' at the same theatre. Most of Ricketts's costume designs for ''The Mikado'' were retained by subsequent designers of the D'Oyly Carte productions for more than 50 years.<ref>Bell, pp. 148–152</ref>{{refn|Ricketts's scenic designs for ''The Gondoliers'' were retained until 1957 and the costume designs for a further year, after which they were replaced by designs by [[Peter Goffin]].<ref>Rollins and Witts, p. VII</ref> The costume designs for ''The Mikado'' can be seen at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive.<ref>[https://www.gsarchive.net/carte/1926/index.html "Rupert D'Oyly Carte's season of Gilbert and Sullivan operas"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922171628/https://www.gsarchive.net/carte/1926/index.html |date=22 September 2008 }}, Gilbert and Sullivan Archive. Retrieved 1 November 2019</ref>|group=n}}

Outside London, Ricketts worked for the [[Abbey Theatre]], Dublin, in 1912 on plays by [[William Butler Yeats|W. B. Yeats]] and [[J. M. Synge]],<ref>"Stage Designs by Ricketts", ''The Times'', 5 January 1933, p. 8</ref> and designed [[John Masefield]]'s ''The Coming of Christ'', staged in [[Canterbury Cathedral]] in 1928.<ref>"The Coming of Christ", ''The Times'', 29 May 1928, p. 9</ref> His final theatre designs were for [[Ferdinand Bruckner]]'s ''Elizabeth of England'' (with [[Phyllis Neilson-Terry]] at the [[Cambridge Theatre]], London (1931)<ref name=rsa/> and [[Donald Francis Tovey|Donald Tovey]]'s opera ''The Bride of Dionysus'', which was staged in Edinburgh after Ricketts's death.<ref>"Opera in Edinburgh", ''The Times'', 28 April 1932, p. 12</ref>

After Ricketts's death the [[Art Fund|National Art Collections Fund]] bought a collection of his drawings for theatrical costumes and scenery, and arranged for them to be exhibited at galleries in London and throughout Britain. Twelve of the drawings were shown in the Winter Exhibition of the Royal Academy, and a selection of eighty from the remainder of the drawings was shown at the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]].<ref name=rsa/>

===Collector and writer===
[[File:The venture annual of art and literature - Psyche's Looking Glass.png|thumb|"Psyche's Looking Glass", woodcut, 1903]]
Together with Shannon, Ricketts accumulated a collection of drawings and paintings (French, English, and old masters), Greek and Egyptian antiquities, Persian miniatures, and Japanese prints and drawings. The collection was bequeathed to public art galleries, principally the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.<ref name=dnb/>

Ricketts achieved some success as a writer. He published two monographs: ''The Prado and its Masterpieces'' (1903),  and ''Titian'' (1910).<ref>Ricketts (1903), p. vii; and Ricketts (1910), pp. ix and x</ref> Delaney comments that although superseded by modern scholarship, they remain "among the most evocative books on art in English".<ref name=dnb/> ''Pages on Art'', a selection of Ricketts's essays and articles for publications including ''[[The Burlington Magazine]]'' and ''[[The Morning Post]]'', was published in 1913. It covered an eclectic range of subjects including [[Charles Conder]], Shannon, post-impressionism, Puvis de Chavannes, [[G. F. Watts]], Chinese and Japanese art, and stage design.<ref>Ricketts (1913), pp. vii and viii</ref>{{refn|The article on Shannon, written for a journal in France, is in French.<ref>Ricketts (1913), pp. 17–31</ref>|group=n}}

Under the pen-name Jean Paul Raymond, Ricketts wrote and designed two collections of short stories, ''Beyond the Threshold'' (1928) and ''Unrecorded Histories'' (1933). Under the same pseudonym he wrote ''Recollections of Oscar Wilde'' (1932), a highly personal memoir, published after his death; it was described by ''[[The Observer]]'' as "a loyal and sensitive commemoration" of the man Ricketts regarded as the most remarkable he had met.<ref>"Books and Authors", ''The Observer'', 12 June 1932, p. 6</ref> After Ricketts's death [[Cecil Arthur Lewis|Cecil Lewis]] edited selections from the artist's letters and diaries, which were published as ''Self-Portrait'' in 1939.<ref name=mg1/>

===Last years and legacy===
Ricketts's last years were overshadowed by the illness of Shannon. They had remained together since they first met, despite several affairs Shannon had with women.<ref name=shannon/> While hanging a picture at their house in [[Regent's Park]] in January 1929, Shannon fell and suffered permanent brain damage.<ref name=shannon>Darracott, Joseph. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-36038 "Shannon, Charles Haslewood (1863–1937), lithographer and painter"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001070132/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-36038 |date=1 October 2018 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2019. {{ODNBsub}}</ref> To pay for Shannon's care Ricketts sold some of their collection. Delaney writes that the strain of the situation, compounded by overwork, contributed to Ricketts's death.<ref name=dnb/>

On 7 October 1931 Ricketts died suddenly, aged 65, from [[angina pectoris]] at the Regent's Park house. A memorial service was held at [[St James's, Piccadilly]], on 12 October, attended by many from the art world including [[Robert Anning Bell]], [[Alfred Drury]], [[Gerald Kelly]], [[Sir John Lavery]], [[Henry Macbeth-Raeburn]] and [[Albert Julius Olsson|Julius Olsson]]. He was cremated at [[Golders Green Crematorium]];<ref>"Funeral and Memorial Services: Mr. Charles Ricketts, R.A.", ''The Times'', 13 October 1931, p. 15</ref> his ashes were partly scattered in [[Richmond Park]], London, and the remainder buried at Arolo, [[Lake Maggiore]], Italy. Shannon outlived him by six years.<ref name=dnb/>

Ricketts was celebrated in a [[BBC]] television programme, ''Poverty and Oysters'', with reminiscences by [[Kenneth Clark]] and Cecil Lewis (1979),<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/8c3436a8bd554774924596f9411826e4 "Poverty and Oysters"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 4 November 2019</ref> and a [[BBC Radio 3]] programme, ''Between Ourselves'' (1991), with reminiscences by Lewis (by then a nonagenarian) and featuring [[John Gielgud]] as Ricketts and [[T. P. McKenna]] as Bernard Shaw.<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/72e062875b704bec850dd4fda4d48cd9 "Between Ourselves"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 4 November 2019</ref> Ricketts is portrayed in [[Michael MacLennan]]'s 2003 play ''Last Romantics'', based on the life of Ricketts, Shannon and their circle, including Wilde and [[Aubrey Beardsley]].<ref>[http://www.canadacouncil.ca/news/releases/2003/qg127245397155625000.htm "The Canada Council for the Arts announces finalists for the 2003 Governor General's Literary Awards"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529170331/http://www.canadacouncil.ca/news/releases/2003/qg127245397155625000.htm |date=29 May 2013 }}. Canada Council for the Arts, 20 October 2003. Retrieved 15 June 2010</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Charles de sousy ricketts ra cover design for saint joan102615).jpg|Cover design for Saint Joan
File:Charles Ricketts - Saint Joan - Drop-curtain.jpg|Drop-curtain for Saint Joan (1924)
File:Charles Ricketts - Saint Joan - Joan and the Executioner (watercolor and pencil on paper).jpg|[[Joan of Arc|Joan]] and the Executioner
File:N03221 10.jpg|[[Don Juan]] (1911)
File:N03325 10.jpg|[[Descent from the Cross|Deposition]] from the Cross (1915)
File:Frontispiece of Milton’s Early poems.jpg|Frontispiece of Milton's Early poems
File:The Holy Women and the Angel of the Resurrection by Charles Ricketts.jpg|The [[The Three Marys|Holy Women]] and the Angel of the Resurrection
</gallery>

==Notes, references and sources==

===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=n}}

===References===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{cite book | last= Bell | first= Diana | title= The Complete Gilbert and Sullivan. | year= 1998| location= London | publisher= Greenwich Editions | isbn= 978-0-86288-103-0}}  
* {{cite book | last=Darracott | first=Joseph | author-link=Joseph Darracott | title=All for Art: the Ricketts and Shannon Collection, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge | year=1979 | location=Cambridge and New York | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-22841-1 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/allforartrickett00fitz }}
* {{cite book | last=Delaney | first=J. G. Paul| title=Charles Ricketts: A Biography | year=1990 | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-198-17212-3}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Osborne |editor1-first=Harold |title=The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts |year=1975 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |isbn=0198661134}}
* {{cite book | last=Ricketts | first=Charles  | title=The Prado and its Masterpieces| year=1903 | location=London| publisher=Constable|oclc=927521645 }} ([https://archive.org/details/artofprado00rick/page/n11 An expanded version], written for publication in the US in 1907, can be seen at the [[Internet Archive]].)
* {{cite book | last=Ricketts | first=Charles  | title=A Bibliography of the Books Issued by Hacon and Ricketts | year=1904| location=London | publisher=Ricketts |url=https://archive.org/details/bibliographyofbo00rickrich/page/xviii| oclc=1051608423 }}
* {{cite book | last=Ricketts | first=Charles  | title=Titian | year=1910| location=London | publisher=Methuen |url=https://archive.org/details/titianrick00rickuoft/page/n17| oclc=670381910 }}
* {{cite book | last=Ricketts | first=Charles  | title= Pages on Art| year=1913 | location=London | publisher=Constable| url=https://archive.org/details/pagesonart00rick/page/n11 | oclc=144604213}}
* {{cite book | last=Ricketts | first=Charles|editor1=Cecil Lewis|editor2=T. Sturge Moore|editor2-link=T. Sturge Moore| title=Self-Portrait – Taken from the Letters and Journals of Charles Ricketts | year= 1939| location=London | publisher=Davies | oclc=255094669 }}
* {{cite book|last=Rollins|first=Cyril|year=1962|author2=R. John Witts|title=The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan Operas: A Record of Productions, 1875–1961| location=London|publisher=Michael Joseph|oclc=504581419}}
* {{cite book | last= Watry| first=Maureen  | title= The Vale Press: Charles Ricketts, a Publisher in Earnest| year=2003| location= New Castle, Delaware| publisher=Oak Knoll Press | isbn=978-1-58456-072-2 }}

==External links==
{{commons category|Charles Ricketts}}
* {{Art UK bio}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20151006214031/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/r/ricketts/charles_de_sousy/ Charles Ricketts and the Vale Press] 
* [http://archives.library.rice.edu/repositories/2/resources/439 Guide to the Carl Woodring collection on Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon, 1846–2001] (Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA)
* Archival material at [https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/439599/ricketts_charles_autograph_letter_to_aja_symon Leeds University Library]
* [http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=templates/full/person.html&_IXTRAIL_=Academicians&person=5861 Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections]
* {{Librivox author |id=14485}}
* {{LCAuth|n80043407|Charles S. Ricketts|42|ue}}
* [https://lccn.loc.gov/no96044617 Vale Press] at [[Library of Congress]] Authorities, with 10 records

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ricketts, Charles}}
[[Category:1866 births]]
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[[Category:Alumni of the City and Guilds of London Art School]]
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