by One of the things we’ve been enjoying on our travels is connecting dots from places we visit as we go along. It’s also been fun to feel like we’re starting to know some art and artists better, to be able to identify the possible influences or artist behind a work at a glance.
When we walked into the New York State Museum (in Albany, New York) and saw the poster for Margery Ryerson: Art is Contagious, we both said “That looks like Robert Henri” (whose home in Nebraska we toured on a whim). We were delighted to discover that Ryerson, though an artist herself, is best known for compiling the notes for Henri’s influential art instruction book, The Art Spirit (1923). She studied with Henri, so her connection to the Ashcan School is very direct.
Margery Ryerson’s (1886–1989) artistic career spanned seven decades, encompassing still life, portraits, landscapes, and cityscapes. She taught and wrote about art, and illustrated books, greeting cards, and calendars. She studied under Charles Hawthorne at the Cape Cod School of Art (Massachusetts), and with Robert Henri at the Art Students League (New York).
The cover photo is Head of a Child, 1963. Unless otherwise specified, the paintings pictured in this post are untitled and undated.
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