Chauncey Foster Ryder, American, (1868-1949).
Chauncey Foster Ryder was born in Danbury, Connecticut in 1868. He spent much of his youth in New Haven, Connecticut,
where he began to pursue an interest in painting between the ages of ten and twelve. In his early twenties he moved
to Chicago for artistic instruction, studying first at the Art Institute and then at Smith's Academy, where he became
an instructor after his first year as a student. In 1891, he moved to France so that he could study art in Paris.
He first enrolled in the Academie Julien. After two years there, he began to exhibit works at the annual Paris Salon,
and showed works regularly there from 1903-1909.
1907 was also an important year for Ryder when the prominent New York art dealer, William Macbeth, began to represent
him, selling the first of Ryder's works after only two months of partnership. Theirs was a lifelong business relationship.
Ryder soon moved to New York City and began to show his work both in Paris and in New York, and finally in 1909 he
opened a studio in New York City.
In 1910 Ryder began to travel throughout New England, the landscape of which provided much of the subject matter for
his work. He and his wife bought a house in Wilton, New Hampshire. They also summered for several years on Monhegan
Island, Maine and painted for some time in Old Lyme, CT with the Old Lyme Art Colony.
Ryder's exhibition career is extensive from the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts, the Lyme Art Association, the Art Institute of Chicago, and many other galleries and art associations. Ryder's
paintings are included in the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Museum of Modern Art, the
New York Public Library, the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT and the New Haven Paint and Clay Club, to name a few.
The above essay was taken in its entirety from "Who Was Who in American Art,"
by Peter Hastings Falk, published in 1935