Chauncey Foster Ryder

Clouds Over the Valley

In 1907, Ryder moved to New York City, where he was represented for the rest of his career by art dealer William Macbeth. His landscapes were admired for their vigorous brushwork, and the degree to which he pushed representational elements towards abstraction. He became known for a palette of predominantly gray-green tones, eventually known as 'Ryder green'. He opened a studio in the city in 1909, and the following year bought property in Wilton, New Hampshire. For the remainder of his life, he divided his time between New York and New Hampshire. In 1910, he traveled throughout New England, providing locales for many of his subsequent paintings. That year, future president Woodrow Wilson and his wife Ellen bought one of his landscapes, Valley of Assisi, to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. Ryder was a member of several art associations, including the American Water Color Society and the Society for Sanity in Art. Among his awards were the Paris Salon (honorable mention, 1907), the American Water Color Society (gold medal), the National Arts Club (gold medal), and the New York Water Color Society (gold medal). He also received awards at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition and the 1937 Paris International Exposition. Ryder died in Wilton, NH in 1949. His work is in the collections of numerous American museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Portrait Gallery (Washington, D.C.), the Art Institute of Chicago (Illinois), and the Baltimore Museum of Art (Maryland)