Albert Pinkham Ryder
Albert Pinkham Ryder (born March 19, 1847 in New Bedford, Massachusetts ; † March 28, 1917 ) was an American painter best known for his poetic and atmospheric allegorical works and seascapes as well as for his eccentricity. While his art shared an emphasis on subtle variations in color with tonalism , it was unique in accentuating form in a way that some art historians see as premeditating modern art .
Early life
Ryder was the youngest of four sons. A bustling whaling town in the 19th century, New Bedford had a close relationship with the sea, which Ryder is believed to have inspired in later life. Little is known about his childhood. The Ryder family moved to New York City in 1867 or 1868 , where an older brother had opened a successful restaurant.
Studies and early career
Ryder's early interest in art was nourished in New York by William E. Marshall. From 1870 to 1873, and again from 1874 to 1875, Ryder studied art at the National Academy of Design . There he exhibited his first painting in 1873 and met the artist Julian Alden Weir , who became a lifelong friend. In 1878 Ryder joined the newly formed Society of American Artists , a loosely organized group whose work did not conform to the academic standards of the time. Other members included Augustus Saint-Gaudens , Robert Swain Gifford (also from New Bedford), Ryder's friend Julian Alden Weir, John La Farge , and Alexander Helwig Wyant . Ryder exhibited with this group from 1878 to 1887. His early works from the 1880s were often tonalistic landscapes, sometimes with cattle, trees, and small buildings.
Artistic maturity
The 1880s and 1890s are considered Ryder's most creative and artistically mature years. His art became more poetic and imaginative, and Ryder wrote poetry to accompany many of his works. His paintings sometimes showed scenes from literature, operas, and religion. Ryder's characteristic style is characterized by luminous, sometimes ill-defined shapes or stylized figures in a dream-like land or seascape. His scenes are often illuminated by weak sunlight or brilliant moonlight through eerie clouds. Ryder rarely signed his works.
Ryder's methods
Ryder used his colors abundantly and carelessly. His paintings, which he often worked on for 10 years or more, were built up from layers of paint and varnish on top of one another. Often he painted on wet varnish, or painted with quick-drying paint over a layer of slow-drying paint. The result is that Ryder paintings remain unstable and darken. They form cracks and do not dry completely even after decades, sometimes they completely disintegrate. For these reasons, and because some Ryder paintings were finished or reworked by others after his death, some paintings look very different today than when they were created.
Eccentricity and Fame: Ryder's Late Years
After 1900, when his father died, Ryder's creativity declined dramatically. For the rest of his life, he devoted his artistic energy to occasional revisions of existing paintings, some of which were scattered around his New York apartment. Visitors were struck by his sloppy habits. Ryder never cleaned, the floor was covered with trash, stale food, and thick layers of dust. He had to free up space for visitors to stand or sit. He was shy and did not seek the company of others, but received guests politely and enjoyed storytelling and telling about his art. He earned a reputation as a loner, but kept social contacts, enjoyed corresponding and continued to visit friends while traveling.
Although his creativity sank in the new century, his fame grew. Important collectors of American art collected his work and often acted as lenders for national art exhibitions; Ryder himself had lost interest in exhibiting his work. The National Academy of Design elected Ryder a full member ( NA ) of the academy in 1906 . In 1908 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters . In 1913, 10 of his works were featured on the historic Armory Show , an honor that shows his appreciation by modern artists of the time.
In 1915 Ryder's health deteriorated and he died in the home of a friend who was caring for him. A commemorative exhibition was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1918 . While the work of many of his contemporaries fell into disuse in the 20th century, his reputation remained largely intact thanks to his unique and forward-thinking style.
The question of authenticity
In their book, Albert Pinkham Ryder: Painter of Dreams , William Innes Homer and Lloyd Goodrich write , "There are more fake Ryders than there are forgeries of any other American artist except his contemporary Ralph Blakelock ". The authors, Ryder experts, estimate the number of forgeries at over 1,000. They also claim (as of 1989) that some remain in private and museum collections and are offered by art dealers and auction houses. One reason for this is that Ryder is easy to fake. Forgers have a rich repertoire of techniques to artificially age pictures, such as painting on old canvases or baking to create cracks. Forgeries can be detected through visual and chemical examinations, as well as through a provable origin - a written documentation of the ownership of an image.
Selected works
Web links
- Works by Albert Pinkham Ryder at Zeno.org .
Individual evidence
- ^ Nationalacademy.org: Past Academicians "R" / Ryder, Albert Pinkham NA 1906 ( Memento April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed July 14, 2015)
- ^ Members: Albert Pinkham Ryder. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed April 23, 2019 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ryder, Albert Pinkham |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 19, 1847 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New Bedford, Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 28, 1917 |