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Charles de Sousy Ricketts

The Teacher of Wisdom

Maker

Charles de Sousy Ricketts (British, 1866-1931)

Title

The Teacher of Wisdom
illustration for the poem “The Teacher of Wisdom” by Oscar Wilde, first published in *Fortnightly Review*

Year

July 1894

Medium

  • pen and ink on off-white,
  • medium weight wove paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • pen and ink on off-white,
  • medium weight wove paper

Materials

pen and ink

Supports

  • paper

Dimensions

22.9 x 15.2 cm (9 x 6 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed, LR:CR

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Gustav Radeke

Object Number

31.241

Type

  • Drawings and Watercolors

Publications

  • Books

Fantastic Illustration and Design in Britain, 1850-1930

Alt Author: Cooper-Hewitt Museum. Catalog for exhibition, March 29-May 13, 1979 at Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design ; June 5-September 2, 1979 at Cooper-Hewitt Museum.

Exhibition History

Draw Me a Story
Illustration from the Permanent Collection
Apr 14, 2006 – Jul 23, 2006

Label copy

Charles Ricketts was a major practitioner of the Arts and Crafts concept “The Book Beautiful,” following the precepts of William Morris in designing type, bindings, and wood engravings from his own designs. The artist collaborated closely with Oscar Wilde on illustrations for his texts, which culminated in Ricketts’s masterpiece of illustration for Wilde’s “The Sphinx.” This drawing, for Wilde’s 1894 “The Teacher of Wisdom” demonstrates the attenuated austerity of Rickett’s linear style, offering a contrast to the sensual use of shape and pattern exhibited in works by Beardsley, hanging {direction}.

The poem is a fable about a man born with the “perfect knowledge of God” who shares his knowledge with others but in the process, loses his own closeness to God. He finally becomes a hermit in the desert, after proclaiming: “I will talk to you about all other things that are in heaven and earth, but about God I will not talk to you. Neither now, nor at any other time, will I talk to you about God.”

The English Eye
British Painting from the 17th to the 19th Centuries; Contemporary British Art; Old Master British Drawings and Watercolors; British Picture Books for Children; Three Centuries of British Decorative Arts, Textiles, and Costume
Jun 21, 1991 – Sep 01, 1991
Fantastic Illustration and Design in Great Britain 1850-1930
Mar 29, 1979 – May 13, 1979

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Charles de Sousy Ricketts (British, 1866-1931)
The Teacher of Wisdom; illustration for the poem “The Teacher of Wisdom” by Oscar Wilde, first published in *Fortnightly Review*, July 1894
Pen and ink on off-white, medium weight wove paper
22.9 x 15.2 cm (9 x 6 inches)
Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Gustav Radeke 31.241

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Feedback

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