Beschreibung:

♡ HILDA RIX NICHOLAS (1884-1961) The Arab Sheep Market, Tangier 1914 oil on canvas on board signed lower left: EHRix 47.5 x 57.5cm PROVENANCE: Dr J. P. Rasmussen OAM Thence by descent Private collection, New South Wales EXHIBITIONS: Robyn Brady Pty Ltd, Loan Exhibition, Woollahra, Sydney 1989 (label verso) Hilda Rix Nicholas 1884-1961, Ian Potter Gallery, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 20 Sept-27 Oct 1990 A Private Collection: A Century of Australian Heritage, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 20 June-21 July 1991 Capturing the Orient: Hilda Rix Nicholas and Ethel Carrick in the East, Waverley City Gallery, Melbourne, 16 July-29 August 1993 (label verso), then toured to: Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville 1993 Gold Coast Art Centre, Surfers Paradise 1993 Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart 1994 SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney 1994 UNE Australienne: Hilda Rix Nicholas in Paris, Tangier and Sydney - Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney 3 May-13 July 2014 (p. 35, exhibition catalogue) LITERATURE: The Art of Hilda Rix Nicholas Anthony Hordern & Sons Ltd., with Bertram Stevens, Sydney 1919 Pigot, J., Hilda Rix Nicholas Her Life and Art, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2000, p. 44, pl. 10 Hoorn, J., Hilda Rix Nicholas and Elsie Rix's Moroccan Idyll: Art and Orientalism, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2013, p.140 (illus.) "The Sheep Market is one of Rix's most accomplished Moroccan paintings. The balance achieved in the composition is remarkable...the stone of ancient buildings simply rendered in a tonal palette. Slight chromatic variations create a subtle and distinctive texture that keeps the eye engaged...the whole is suffused by Moroccan light...it is an inspired work, one of her best." p.142 OTHER NOTES: Establishing success early in her career, Ballarat born Hilda Rix Nicholas exhibited locally in Melbourne at The Austral Salon and at the Victorian Artists' Society, while studying under Frederick McCubbin Always with a sketchbook nearby, Hilda's early works began in illustration and drawing. Her portraits were often of subjects chosen at random, her linework masterful, and her confident handling evident from these early years. This talent and intuition for recognising subject matter in the streets would remain with her in the ensuing decades. The Rix family arrived in London in 1907 before continuing on to the epicentre of artistic culture - Paris. Women's access to academic exhibitions and art societies contributed to an avant-garde Parisian society where being a woman artist was not wholly obstructive. Hilda continued her talents in portraiture studying under Auguste Delecluse, but found his use of colour uninspiring. After her Christmas holiday in Rouen, Hilda returned to Paris and then began her studies under Richard Miller, an American painter immersed in Impressionism and its evanescent images of light, texture, and imaginative colour. Hilda had arrived in Paris with Australian colours at the forefront, but soon discovered the delicious palette and design of French Impressionism under Miller. Hilda Rix was further inspired in 1912 when she made her first visit to Morocco. Her trips here satiated her interest in both orientalism and the inspiration found on the street. Visiting markets and town squares, she produced a series of sketches and several energetic oils that remain some of her most accomplished works. Working with a quick hand, Rix captured the exotic architecture, rich textiles, bold colours, and majestic light of Morocco - sometimes in a matter of minutes. As with many before and alongside her, Rix was in search of the exotic, the magic of the East, and she certainly found it. Describing her first impressions of Tangier, Hilda commented: "So much like an extraordinary beautiful dream that I'm afraid to wake up in the morning and find it all gone…it is more splendid than I thought a great great deal. There is such quantity and richness of wonderful picturesqueness every way one turns the head there is a new picture."