Been a fan of Albert Pinkham Ryder for a long time now and realized this morning that I had not mentioned him here in over ten years. Here’s a post from back in 2009 with a few added images and a quote that fits his work and his influence very well.
Albert Pinkham Ryder– The Race Track/ Death on a Pale Horse
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It is the first vision that counts. The artist has only to remain true to his dream and it will possess his work in such a manner that it will resemble the work of no other… for no two visions are alike, and those who reach the heights have all toiled up steep mountains by a different route. To each has been revealed a different panorama.
–Albert Pinkham Ryder
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I have always been affected by the dark, moody compositions of the the American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder, a somewhat under-appreciated painter who worked in the late 1800’s/ early 1900’s, dying in 1917 at the age of 70.
Though he has sometimes been called the American Van Gogh, Ryder is probably not as well known as he should be mainly because of the manner in which he painted. He had little regard for working in a fashion that would insure the longevity of his work and as a result, most of his pieces are heavily cracked and fragile. Many have not survived.
Albert Pinkham Ryder– Toilers of the Sea
Even so, when I have seen his work in person I am always filled with a sense of excitement, as though I’ve stumbled upon a hidden treasure. There’s also a feeling of knowing this person and feeling their essence. It’s as though I feel something in my own being that parallels his in some way. I hesitate to say this because I do not know in any fashion the man or his personality. But what is seen in his work is something I can truly identify with in some manner beyond appreciation.
His work has the feel of a visionary. I see real poetry and soul in his work, something which, to my mind, is lacking in much work that is produced. I can’t describe how I see that– it’s more just a matter of sensing it. To me, Ryder seems to be trying to communicate something vaporous and indefinable, something beyond the senses, something beyond words.
Again, the feel of a visionary.
There is much to find in the way of inspiration in his work.
Albert Pinkham Ryder-Jonah 1895
Albert Pinkham Ryder- Moonlight 1887
Albert Pinkham Ryder- Moonlit Cove 1885
Albert Pinkham Ryder- Spirit of Autumn
Albert Pinkham Ryder- The Barnyard 1874
Albert Pinkham Ryder- The Old Mill By Moonlight
Albert Pinkham Ryder- The Flying Dutchman
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