RICKARDS, JOCELYN (1924-2005)

**PRICE ON APPLICATION**
 
“Portrait Of Pauline (Rickards)" (1946)
oil on board
72.5 x 55.5cm
signed lower left
*exhibited at Contemporary Art Society, 1946
*exhibited at Macquarie Galleries, October 1948
*private collection, Adelaide
 
Rickards is a celebrated Australian artist, Theatre & Film costume designer. Originally from Melbourne, she was a foundation member of 'The Charm School', or Merioola Group of modernist artists, who occupied a Victorian-era mansion in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. The collective included other prominent artists including William Dobell, Russell Drysdale, Jeffrey Smart, Jean Bellette, Donald Friend and Margaret Olley to name a few. Here she met famous costume designer, Loudon Sainthill who introduced her to costume illustration and design. Both Sainthill and Rickards travelled to Postwar London in 1949, where she springboarded from West End Theatre productions, to designing costumes for large Hollywood Films including 'From Russia With Love', 'Blow-Up' and was nominated for an Academy Award for 'Morgan' (1967).
 
This portrait, undoubtedly her masterpiece, is important for the fact it was exhibited at Macquarie Galleries in 1948 - the show through which art critic Paul Haefliger first coined the term "Charm School" describing Jocelyn's work!! This portrait meant a lot to Jocelyn, as it depicts her socialite sister, Pauline, was one of the largest in the show, and the only piece listed N.F.S. It had previously been exhibited at the Contemporary Art Society Show in 1946 under "Girl With A Flower", which the critic for the Sydney Morning Herald called "a somewhat precious portrait"!!