Introduction

Charles Shannon was a painter, printmaker and collector whose life is inseparable from that of Charles Ricketts. They met in 1882, when both were still in their teens, on the wood engraving course at the City and Guilds Technical Art School at Lambeth and became friends and life-long companions.

Shannon was closely involved in Ricketts' book illustration and publishing projects in the 1890s, but his orientation was primarily towards the fine arts. He took up lithography in 1888 as an independent printmaking rather than an illustrative medium and by the 1890s was the leading British lithographer.

Shannon's mature paintings often have sensuous, idyllic subjects. They show the influence of Titian, Watts and Puvis de Chavannes. His first one man exhibition was held at The Leicester Galleries in 1906.

Works

Bibliography

A Century of Master Drawings, Watercolours, & Works in Egg Tempera. London: Peter Nahum, nd.

Darracott, Joseph. All for Art: The Ricketts and Shannon Collection. Exhibition catalogue. Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum, 1979.


Last modified 13 December 2017