Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/charles-ricketts-1843" aria-label="More by Charles Ricketts" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Charles Ricketts</a>
Don Juan
Presented by Sir Otto Beit 1917
adults
birth to death
Byron, George Gordon, Lord, ‘Don Juan’
candle
characters
curtain
death
domestic
Don Juan
furnishings
heating and lighting
interior - non-specific
interiors
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
man
military
objects
people
Shaw, George Bernard, ‘Don Juan in Hell’
society
soldier
work and occupations
<p>Ricketts painted a number of pictures inspired by the story of Don Juan based on Mozart’s opera, Bernard Shaw’s play Don Juan in Hell and the epic poem by Byron.</p><p>Driven by his passions, Don Juan was described by Ricketts as ‘a profoundly significant figure, a kind of saint. Derider of all attempts to justify God’s way to man, the Don accepted the baseness of men, women, and institutions, and glorified in the power it gave him’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
28 April 2003 – 18 April 2004
2004-04-18
28 April 2003 – 18 April 2004
2004-04-18
2003-04-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-04-28
Decadence
Collection based display
14 May 2004 – 11 July 2004
2004-07-11
1 May 2004 – 31 July 2004
2004-07-31
2004-05-01
New Art Gallery Walsall (Walsall, UK)
http://www.artatwalsall.org.uk/
2004-05-14
Hidden Histories
Loan-out
Don Juan
support: 1162 × 959 mm
frame: 1515 × 1323 × 75 mm
Presented by Sir Otto Beit 1917
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text0">Ricketts painted a number of pictures inspired by the      story of Don Juan based on Mozart’s opera, Bernard Shaw’s play </span><span class="text18">Don Juan in Hell</span><span class="text0"> and the      epic poem by Byron.  </span>
</div>
<div class="para9">
<span class="text0">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text17">Driven by his passions, Don Juan was described by      Ricketts as ‘a profoundly</span><span class="text0"> </span><span class="text16">significant figure, a kind of saint. Derider</span><span class="text0"> </span><span class="text17">of all attempts to justify      God’s way to man, the Don accepted the baseness</span><span class="text0"> of men, women, and institutions, and </span><span class="text17">glorified      in the power it gave him’. </span><span class="text0">
<br/> </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-02-10T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N03221</b> DON JUAN <i>c.</i> 1911</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘CR’ in monogram b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 45 1/2×37 5/8 (116×96).
<br/>Presented by Sir Otto Beit 1917.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by Sir Otto Beit from the artist for presentation to the Tate Gallery 1917.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Theodore Galerien, ‘The Renaissance of the Tate Gallery’ in <i>Studio</i>, LXXXII, 1921, p.191, repr. p.195 (in colour); Ricketts, 1939, p.280.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Tate Gallery Illustrations</i>, 1928, pl.110.</p>
<p>Ricketts painted a number of pictures from <i>c.</i> 1911 inspired by the story of Don Juan, based mainly on Mozart's opera, but also partly on Shaw's play <i>Don Juan in Hell</i> and the poem by Byron. In a letter to Mrs Muriel Lee Matthews of 1918 (Ricketts, 1939, p.296) he refers to his ‘Death of Don Giovanni’ and says: ‘The curtain represents the rush of the wood instruments in the Overture.’ His other works on the theme of Don Juan include: ‘Don Juan challenging the Commander’ (his R.A. Diploma work); ‘Don Juan and the Statue’ (exhibited at the International Society, May 1918 (22), and reproduced by Sturge Moore, 1933, pl.15); and two versions each of ‘The Death of Don Juan’ and ‘Don Juan in Hell’. The significance of the Don Juan story was further elaborated by the artist in his book <i>Beyond the Threshold</i>, 1929, privately printed under the pseudonym of Jean Paul Raymond.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-07-16T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults birth to death Byron, George Gordon, Lord, ‘Don Juan’ candle characters curtain death domestic Don Juan furnishings heating and lighting interior - non-specific interiors literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) man military objects people Shaw, George Bernard, ‘Don Juan in Hell’ society soldier work and occupations