Anne Estelle Rice 1877-1959

Rice was born to Irish-American parents in Conchohocken in Philadelphia in 1877 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in her home city and worked for a time as an illustrator for the North American and Saturday Evening Post, but it was her time in France in the early twentieth century that her distinctive style developed. Rice first visited France in 1906, travelling with the aim of making illustrations of fashionable society for Wanamaker's department store. She became a member of the Societaire de Salon d'Automne a year later around the time that she held her first solo exhibition in London, at the Baillie Gallery. Around this time she met John Duncan Fergusson who was delighted by her beauty, intellect and talent. 'Rice's vivacious personality provided a good match for Fergusson. She shared his curiosity and love of adventure, breaking with social convention in order to accompany him to venues that were then considered unacceptable to women.' (Kirsten Simister, Living Paint - J. D. Fergusson 1874-1961, 2001, p.37) By 1911 Rice had become a regular and significant contributor to Fergusson's journal Rhythm. Fergusson painted several striking portraits of Rice and for a time they were clearly extremely important to one another, both romantically and professionally. Although Rice and Fergusson's relationship did not last and she married the critic Raymond Drey in 1913 and began to spend much of her time in London rather than Paris, the influence of Fergusson remained strong in her work.

The importance of Anne Estelle Rice has been recently reassessed and she is now justly regarded as the most prominent female member of the group of Colourists artists. The vitality of her drawing and the boldness of her Fauvist colouring expresses the enthusiasm she felt for her subjects and the confidence of her abilities. The present picture, painted in 1910 is perhaps the most complete demonstration of the link between the art of Rice and Fergusson, that has ever been seen at auction and it is arguably among her most accomplished paintings. It is certainly comparable with a contemporary picture regarded by many as her masterpiece which was exhibited at the Salon d'Automne of 1910, a self-portrait with a beautiful still life laid out in the foreground. The same porcelain tureen that appears in Still Life with Dahlias is prominent in the self portrait and it is likely that they were painted around the same time, during a period when Rice was particularly influenced by the work of Fergusson. The careful arrangement of the objects and flowers and the handling of the paint, with thick impasto and bold black outlines reflects Fergusson's approach to painting and the rich colour scheme appears to have taken its inspiration from the series of beautiful paintings by Fergusson in which Rice herself posed, Closerie des Lilas of 1907 (Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow), The Spotted Scarf of 1908 (Private collection) and In the Sunlight also of 1908 (Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum). The two artists' styles developed along parallel paths around this time; 'For Rice and Fergusson... defining colour through linear containment opened up further possibilities. Both began to edge their colours in blue or red contours, sometimes using them in combination.' (Philip Long and Elizabeth Cumming, The Scottish Colourists 1900-1930, 2001, p.45)