Hilda Rix Nicholas (1884–1961) ‘Blackboy and Lilac’, oil on board circa 1920

Name: Hilda Rix Nicholas (1884–1961) ‘Blackboy and Lilac’, oil on board circa 1920
SKU: 1035660
Availability: InStock

$11,500.00 AUD

Hilda Rix Nicholas (1884–1961)
‘Blackboy and Lilac’

Oil on artist’s board

Signed ‘H. Rix Nicholas’, lower left

38 x 31.5cm

Good condition, a mild bow to the card, paint surface is excellent, the glass in front has some marks, frame is good. Needs a very light clean, displays beautifully as-is. No yellowed varnish evident.

Hilda Rix Nicholas (1884–1961) is now recognised as one of Australia’s most important early modern painters, celebrated for her powerful draughtsmanship, luminous colour and evocative portrayals of both European and Australian subjects.

Trained in Melbourne before forging an exceptional early career in Paris and Tangier, she returned to Australia after the First World War and became a leading figure in inter-war Australian art. Her work is represented in every major Australian public collection, including the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, QAGOMA and the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Her significance has been newly underscored by the Art Gallery of NSW’s current landmark exhibition “Dangerously Modern: Women Artists Between the Wars”, which brings together many of her finest works from public and private collections nationwide. This renewed national attention confirms her status as a pioneering and influential modernist whose artistic voice remains vital a century on.

The stylistic characteristics, palette and signature of this work correspond closely to works painted by Hilda Rix Nicholas in the early 1920s, a period during which she was working in Melbourne and exhibiting regularly at the Fine Art Society’s Gallery. Still-life subjects from this era are comparatively rare and typically associated with her studio practice immediately following her return from Europe and Tangier.

The Art Gallery of NSW’s 2025/6 Exhibition ‘Dangerously Modern’ included a large representation of works by this fascinating woman artist from the early 20th century.