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Hilda Rix Nicholas / Australia 1884–1961 / Two soldiers 1918 / Charcoal and crayon on cream canvas board / Gift of Rix Wright 1971 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Estate of Hilda Rix Nicholas
Hilda Rix NicholasTwo soldiers 1918
Not Currently on Display
Hilda Rix Nicholas’s husband of one-month, Major George Matson Nicholas, DSO, of the 24th Battalion AIF, was killed on active service in 1916. She returned to Australia from England in 1918 and turned to art to express her grief, painting works which commemorate the heroism of the Australian soldier.
Completed two years after her husband’s death, the spirited portrait Two soldiers 1918 depicts two Australian soldiers on leave during the First World War. Emphasising the comradery that can emerge during wartime, the sentiment of the work positively aligns with the ANZAC mythology and reveals the artist’s belief in the character and dignity of the Australian soldier.
Hilda Rix Nicholas was born in Ballarat in 1884. Her father, Henry Finch Rix, was a teacher, later working for the Victorian Education Department, while her mother Elizabeth was a talented amateur painter.
Hilda Rix studied at the Melbourne National Gallery School under Frederick McCubbin. Arthur Streeton was a family friend and it is thought that he encouraged her to study in Europe. She left Melbourne in March 1907 to study in London and Paris. Following a period of tragedy and loss during her family’s evacuation to London at the outbreak of the First World War, the artist returned to Australia in 1918. She travelled widely throughout New South Wales and visited Queensland in 1927 on a painting expedition.
Boldness, strength and honesty are characteristic of Hilda Rix Nicholas’s work. Her response to landscape was intense while her still lifes and interiors have an intimacy reminiscent of Dutch interiors.
Discussion questions
What impact did the outbreak of World War One have on Hilda Rix Nicholas? Discuss the role that art played in her life before and after the war. Think about what the trajectory of her career may have been like if she had not travelled and studied in Europe before 1914.
Activities
Source a photograph to sketch of yourself and a friend or family member sitting side-by-side. Study the illustrative skill evident in Hilda Rix Nicholson’s Two soldiers by sketching the faces of the two men. Use a dark pencil, pastel or charcoal to draw your image and apply a wet brush to add shadows to your drawing.