Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • The Collection
  • Projects & Publications
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Image

Previous 1 / 1 Next

Charles de Sousy Ricketts

The Teacher of Wisdom, July 1894

Description

Maker

  • Charles de Sousy Ricketts, 1866-1931, British

Title

The Teacher of Wisdom

Year

July 1894

Medium

Pen and ink on off-white, medium weight wove paper

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • pen and ink

Supports

  • paper

Dimensions

22.9 x 15.2 cm (9 x 6 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed, LR:CR

Type

  • Works on Paper,
  • Drawings and Watercolors

Credit

Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Gustav Radeke

Object Number

31.241

Projects & Publications

Publications

Fantastic Illustration and Design in Britain, 1850-1930

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Draw Me a Story

April 14 - July 23, 2006

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

June 21 - September 1, 1991

Fantastic Illustration and Design in Great Britain 1850-1930

March 29 - May 13, 1979

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is The Teacher of Wisdom with the accession number of 31.241. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use