Lot 12

The work is in overall very good condition consistent with age. Upon very close inspection minor fly spots can be seen and some surface dirt has attached to the pigment surface, as expected for works of this age.
There are faint hairline cracks forming, although the pigment overall appears stable.
The work has been viewed under UV light. There are small areas that fluoresce including: small spots in the upper left sky, upper centre sky, shoulder and arm of the central figure, and far left figure. These are all very minor and only visible under UV light.
The work is well framed, although the frame is modern. Overall size including frame is 66 x 76cm. (LEONARD JOEL CONTACTLESS DELIVERY $88 within 20km of Melbourne premises)


The opinions expressed in the condition reports are a guide only and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Prospective buyers are encouraged to inspect articles for sale at our pre-sale viewing where Leonard Joel staff are available for advice.
Leonard Joel makes no guarantee of the originality of mechanical or applied components. Absence of reference to such modifications does not imply that a lot is free from modifications.

Dr J. P. Rasmussen OAM
Thence by descent
Private collection, New South Wales

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)

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

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."
Hilda's fascination with the Orient was shared by many in Europe. Romantic conceptions of these far away lands consumed the tastes of the day, developing an oriental paraphernalia. The Westernised nature of Tangier cemented its popularity with foreign visitors, especially artists. Although Hilda had travelled to the mountains into the "real Morocco", she was confident of her own safety and used her privilege to her advantage while working in the public places of Tangier. In some instances, Hilda's subjects were won over by her, happy to play along as her muse, and other times uninterested, their bodies and heads seen from behind.
Hilda had always been attracted to clothing, and she was fascinated by the array of colours, textures, and patterns exposed to her in Morocco. Her quick handling of paint, however, meant that the intricate details of pattern could not always be fully shown. Instead, she emphasised the rich design and colours of the cloth in perfect harmony and with skilled restraint. In The Arab Sheep Market, Tangier 1914, Hilda has cleverly foregone a focus on character for design. She contrasts the warm yellows, creams, oranges and pinks of the figures, against the cooler blue, violet, and grey shadows of the architecture. The painting in its entirety, however, displays the radiant effects of the Moroccan sunlight.
From their first exhibition in Paris to further showings back in Australia, Hilda's Moroccan work was praised. Her depictions of the Orient did not challenge the colonialist perspective, but her works were recognisably different - a livelier and more vibrant depiction of such scenes than the more conventional depictions before her. In 1919, fellow woman artist Grace Cossington Smith viewed her works in a Sydney exhibition, commenting:
"There has been a stunning exhibition here…I went to see it three or four times…a huge room at Anthony Hordern's full of them - very coloured - scenes of Morocco - and people, dresses - all sunny - but the most astonishing thing was the life in them: the people really had expressions, not just a painted thing."
Whilst Hilda Rix is commonly discussed as an artist who comfortably stayed between traditionalism and modernism, her Moroccan works traversed new ground for, not only Australian female artists, but artists of the early 20th Century. Although she studied the work of others, she was her own woman, forging her own distinct path that has more recently been recognised for its immense impact on Australian art history.

Olivia Fuller
Head of Art