Charles Ricketts

Costume Design for a Warrior in ‘Montezuma’

c.1925–6

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Not on display

Artist: Charles Ricketts 1866–1931
Medium: Graphite, watercolour and gouache on paper
Dimensions: Support: 432 × 340 mm
frame: 640 × 490 × 25 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Art Fund 1933
Reference: N04685

Catalogue entry

N04685 COSTUME DESIGN FOR A WARRIOR IN ‘MONTEZUMA’ c. 1925–6

Not inscribed.
Pencil and watercolour, 17×13 3/8 (43×34).
Presented by the National Art-Collections Fund 1933.
Coll: As for N04684.
Lit: N.A.C.F. Report 1932, 1933, pp.24–7.

According to Sturge Moore (1933, n.p.) Ricketts persuaded his young literary friend Cecil Lewis to write a tragedy on the subject of Montezuma for which he designed splendid costumes, though it was never performed. This and the following number are two of the fourteen costumes he designed and are among the most highly finished of his theatrical designs. Cecil Lewis wrote (20 September 1961) that the play was written in 1925 and the drawings probably date from 1925 to 1926.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II