(Figures on Moroccan street)

Hilda Rix Nicholas was born in Ballarat in 1884, and after studying in Melbourne left Australia for France in 1907 with her mother Elizabeth and sister Elsie. She remained there until 1918 and became one the most acclaimed Australian expatriate artists in Paris. She emerged from her studentship as an exceptional draughtsperson and was celebrated as a commanding figure painter. In France, Rix Nicholas worked between her studio in Paris and the artist colony at Étaples in Brittany, as well as further afield with trips to Spain and Morocco. Her 1912 solo exhibition in Paris launched her considerable reputation as a painter and she had works acquired by the French Government at this time.

If Paris served as a training ground for Rix Nicholas’ figurative work, then it was her summer trips to the luminous landscapes of Étaples and later Morocco that furthered her work as a modern colour painter. Rix Nicholas travelled to Tangier in 1912 and 1914, spending most of her time painting outdoors and responding to the colours, forms and distinct light of the city. While producing a body of exceptional paintings that she would later show to acclaim in France, her plein air oil sketches including '(Figures on Moroccan street)' and '(Moroccan landscape)' serve as vignettes of the sensations of place that inspired the artist. These works remained in the artist’s collection throughout her lifetime as mementos of painting trips that were crucial to her development as a painter.