Jack Van Ryder
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Jack Van Ryder (1899 – 1967) was an American
cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...
and western artist, his colorful life was a series of cinematic moments, the fodder that inspired his distinctively western art. He punched cows and drove freight wagons. He chased wild horses and rode bucking broncos all the way from the Powder River to the Gila, from
Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...
to
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, from Butte to Bisbee. Ryder's soft pastels colored paintings captured the dusty brooding southwestern twilight skies.


Life

He was born on his father's ranch in Continental, Arizona on July 7, 1899. Van Ryder spent his younger days as a cowboy. He ran away from home at the age of 13 for the logging camps of Oregon and the Salmon fishing along the Tillamock and Trask Rivers. He then showed up in
Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...
, where he was a wrangler for four years. He served in the 4th and 17th U.S. Cavalry, and in the 38th US Infantry from 1917 to 1921. Then he returned to the West, roaming cow country from the Canada–US border to Mexico, from Colorado to California. He called himself "The Rambling Kid." In 1924, he headed to
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...
to work as an extra in a
Hoot Gibson Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson (August 6, 1892 – August 23, 1962) was an American rodeo champion, film actor, film director, and producer. While acting and stunt work began as a sideline to Gibson's focus on rodeo, he successfully transitioned ...
western. In 1926, he was offered an art job at the Mark Sennet Studios, working on a giant relief map of California that was installed in San Francisco's Ferry Building. He began competing in rodeos all across the country. He took his paints with him as he traveled the country on the rodeo circuit. It was not long before he renowned as an artist and exceeded his rodeo fame. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, he was with
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and at the end, on Long Range Submarines. After the war, he settled near his birthplace in Tombstone, Arizona. He died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound on his ranch outside of Amado in 1967. Jack Van Ryder epitomized the artist-cowboy and his legacy helped shape romantic views of the southwest.


Artistic development

His early work was pen or graphite on paper; he later turned to oils. In October 1928, his first one-man show, at the Montross Galleries on East 56th Street in New York, sold out within three weeks. Returning from New York, he purchased the Diamond S. Ranch at Camp Verde, but sold it in 1932. His western landscape paintings were bold and emotional, often in soft hues of purple and blue with expansive skies. His tonality and capacity to articulate the southwestern spirit infused his work with both tension and ease. He was commissioned to paint a series of western murals for the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...
. His paintings hung in galleries and museums from New York to LA. One of his paintings won the Corcoran Prize, and in 1936, he had a one-man show of 36 oil paintings in the
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. He had six major exhibits in New York, one in Chicago, one in St. Louis, Cincinnati and Toledo, Ohio. He illustrated books and painted magazine covers, including Jack Weadock's picture of Tucson: "Dust of the Desert." His paintings, watercolors and etchings were his memories of the changing West, all done with honesty, and a great reverence for his subject.Weadock, Jack, Dust of the Desert: Plain Tales of the Desert and the Border, 1936 Van Ryder won the Guild Hall Prize in East Hampton in 1936. He was a member of the Illustrator Club and the National Arts Club of New York. Jack was married 9 times, twice to the same woman! He had 2 sons, Jack F. Van Ryder (born May 21, 1930) of Florida and David Colt Van Ryder (born February 9th, 1944) of Houston TX (the 2 sons by different wives). Jack was a prolific cowboy - rodeo circuit performer. He enjoyed his spirits and was thrown in jail for being disorderly, he torn the jail up so badly in getting out that the sheriff decided to never arrest him again! Jack was a hard charging cowboy with tremendous energy. He accompanied American Western artist Charles Russell on a horseback trip through Montana and the Dakotas. They traveled together to explore and paint the American Indians of the region. Jack learned his art skills from Charles Russell on that lengthy trip. Jack Van Ryder became friends with Henry Ford as a result of being a cowboy at a high end dude ranch in Taos New Mexico, Henry Ford liked Jack's no nonsense straight forward ways. Jack did not treat Henry any different than anybody else, and apparently Henry liked the no BS friendship. These are the personal accounts from his wife Mary Colt Van Ryder of Hartford Connecticut as she relayed them to me.


Museum Collection

*Desert Caballeros Western Museum *Tucson Museum of Art *Great Plains Art Museum *Will Rogers Ranch Collection *The Arizona Historical Society, Southern Arizona *University of Wyoming Art Museum *Arizona Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts *Amerind Museum


Notes


References

*McCracken, Harold, A Distinguished Collection of Western Painting, 1956. *Meigs, John. The Cowboy in American Prints, 1972. *Montross Gallery, Exhibition of Pictures by Jack Van Ryder, 1928. *Van Ryder, Jack, Etchings of the American Southwest and Mexico, 1961


External links


Covington GalleryTaos PaintersAsk Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Ryder, Jack 1899 births 1967 deaths 20th-century American painters Cowboys Artists from Tucson, Arizona 1967 suicides Suicides by firearm in Arizona