Anne Estelle Rice is remembered as a painter with a colorful, planar style best characterized by the use of strong contour lines. Rice began her career studying sculpture at the School of Industrial Art in Pennsylvania, occasionally contributing illustrations to publications like Harper’s and the Saturday Evening Post. She later studied at the Pennyslvania Academy of the Fine Arts under William Merritt Chase, but fully decided to take up painting as a career upon meeting John Fergusson and receiving his encouragement. Her first work was deeply influenced by Post-Impressionists and Fauvists, most visible in her planar compositions, color choices, and brushwork. Her marriage to art and theater critic Raymond Drey coincided with her later interest in theater. In addition to painting theatrical subjects, Rice designed stage sets and costumes for several London operatic productions.