The pink scarf

Ballarat-born Hilda Rix Nicholas was one of Australia’s first post-impressionists. Between 1907 and 1918 she travelled extensively throughout Western Europe, also making several trips to Morocco, producing paintings of the people and places she encountered. Rix Nicholas achieved considerable international success: her works were acquired by the French Government, she exhibited in the Salon and the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français, and she was elected an Associate of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

The pink scarf, created in France in 1913, demonstrates the artist’s absorption of post-impressionist techniques, along with her fascination with costume and colour. The sitter is dressed for the pleasures of the French Belle Époque and the artist takes great delight in defining the relaxed folds of the woman’s filmy pink organza scarf as it shifts around the sumptuous creamy fabric of her elegant off-the-shoulder dress. This image of leisure and beauty is positioned within a boldly shallow pictorial space, defined by a flat, decorative wallpaper of roses. The pink scarf was created just before a tumultuous period in the artist’s life, with the death of her mother, sister and new husband in quick succession. Returning

to Australia in 1918, Rix Nicholas decided to ‘paint things typical of my country’ as well as personal images of grief and war, declaring herself ‘the man for the job’.

Elle Freak, Associate Curator of Australian Paintings and Sculpture