This is the first major study of the life and times of Charles Ricketts (1866-1931), whose spririted career encompassed many aspects of late Victorian and Edwardian culture--including book and theatre design, painting, sculpture, and art criticism--and whose friends included Yeats, Thomas Moore, Housman, and Bottomley. Drawing on a wide range of material, much of it unpublished or newly discovered, Delaney reveals a man of strong opinions and artistic convictions, a fierce opponent of Postimpressionism and modernism who was noted for his wit, liveliness, generosity, and versatility. His story gives a fascinating look at the cultural and artistic life of England before and after the turn of the century.
"A major, thoroughly researched biography....Delaney's comprehensive biography arrives as a capstone."--
English Literature in Transition"Deeply researched and well sourced and offers an assessment of Ricketts which will be necessary reading for anyone working in the area."--
Biography"Subtle, readable, and closely argued."--
The Times Saturday Review (London)"Delaney exposes parts of the art world's infrastructure : the power of critics, the international exhibitions, the tight netwrok, even clubbiness, of artists and critics, and tensions between modernity and nostalgia."--
Albion"Ricketts left us a rich legacy, and so has Delaney in nicely recreating the man and the artist whose struggles reflect the misgivings of the Transition age and elucidate the lingering apprehensions of our own."--
Victorian Studies
