Anne Estelle Rice Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, Illustrator, b. 1875 - d. 1959

Anne Estelle Rice studied art in Pennsylvania before leaving her native city for Paris in 1906. In the summer of the following year she met the Scottish artist John Duncan Fergusson, who encouraged her to quit her job as a fashion illustrator for an American magazine and become a painter.

In Paris, Rice came into contact with the paintings of the Fauves, including André Derain and Henri Matisse, and soon joined the ‘Wild Beasts’ in their celebration of pure colour and simplified forms. Her works attracted the attention of the non-conformist Bloomsbury set, and she was soon contributing to the English journal Rhythm, which promoted the latest radical developments in art and philosophy occurring in Bohemian Paris.

After marrying the art and theatre critic Raymond Drey in 1913 she moved to London, where she quickly became part of the literary set that centred around her close friend Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923). Rice is responsible for the renowned red portrait of the novelist, painted in 1918 and now held at the Museum of New Zealand.

From the 1920s Rice painted warm, rich still lifes, which were exhibited at galleries in England. She remained a frequent visitor to France, and sold paintings to collectors there and in Holland, Denmark and Germany.