she continued to paint significant works including The Summer House and The Fair Musterer, Rix Nicholas, a staunch critic of modernism and disdainful of emerging major artists such as Russell Drysdale and William Dobell, grew out of step with trends in Australian art. Her pictures followed a conservative modern style, portraying an Australian pastoral ideal, and reviews of her exhibitions grew more uneven. She held her last solo show in 1947. Rix Nicholas remained at Delegate until her death in 1961. Her works are held in most major Australian collections, including the Art Gallery of South Australia, Australian War Memorial, National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, and the Queensland Art Gallery. Early life Henry Finch Rix and Elizabeth Sutton, each of whom had migrated to Australia as children with their families, met and married in Victoria in 1876. They had two daughters, Elsie Bertha, born in 1877, and Emily Hilda (known ubiquitously just as Hilda), born in Ballarat on 1 September 1884. The Rix children grew up in a gifted and energetic family. Henry, a mathematics teacher, was appointed a district Inspector of Schools in the 1880s; he was also a poet who wrote in support of Australian Federation, and played Australian rules football for the Carlton Football Club. Elizabeth had grown up assisting in her parents' thriving music business in Ballarat, and was a singer who performed with the Ballarat Harmonic Society. In addition, she had a studio in Melbourne's Flinders Street, and a committee member of the Austral Salon, "a meeting place for intellectual women interested in the fine arts." She painted in an academic style, generally choosing still lifes and flowers as subjects, though she painted some large landscapes in the Beechworth region. Hilda Rix and her sister Elsie both played musical instruments as children, performing songs and dances at regional shows. Elsie was a singer and actor who performed at the meetings of the Austral Salon, and the sisters collaborated in designing posters for the Salons. As a child, Hilda was enthusiastic about drawing. Her artistic efforts drew praise while she was attending high school at Melbourne Girls Grammar (known as Merton Hall), though in most other respects Rix was not an outstanding student. Both took art lessons with a Mr Mather, before Hilda studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School from 1902 to 1905, where she was taught by a leading