During the time Robert Ross ran the Carfax Gallery, he regularly wrote articles for The Academy that were somewhere between review, commentary, anecdote and fiction written in a personal style with plenty of inside jokes and inimitable humour. The name of Ricketts often appeared in the columns, which mainly indicates that Ross and Ricketts spoke to each other frequently and not just about art (the latter is especially evident in their personal correspondence). Some of his pieces were collected by Ross in the publication Masques and Phases (1909), but by no means all of them.
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| Robert Ross, 'The Drama. Mr. Arthur Symons's Morality' (The Academy, 21 April 1906) (fragment) |
His 'review' of an Arthur Symons play led him to contemplate the rise of small theatre groups, including The Literary Theatre Society which involved Ricketts and his friends. Ross, evidently, argued there were too many small coteries:
It seems to me a great pity that the Stage Society should not amalgamate with the New Stage Club, The Literary Theatre Club and all the better dramatic societies. I am in favour of imperialism on the stage, if not elsewhere. The Illicit Theatres Limited would be a good name for the company. For the romantic symbolist and poetic drama they would obtain the services of that Cecil Rhodes of art, Mr. Charles Ricketts, and those Jameson raiders of poetry, Mr. Sturge Moore. Mr. Laurence Binyon and Mr. Arthur Symons. (Robert Ross, The Drama. Mr. Arthur Symons's Morality', The Academy, 21 April 1906, p. 383.)
Of course, the comparison of Ricketts to Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) is viewed in a very different perspective today, but in London in 1906 the imperialist flavour was not considered as negative, and Rhodes, a mining magnate and politician who founded Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia), was seen as an energetic man 'who got things done'.
