Margery Ryerson is an art world legend. In addition to her very long professional career as a painter/printmaker (eighty plus years) Miss Ryerson is credited with recording and publishing the lessons and wisdom of two of the country’s most influential teachers, Robert Henri and Charles Hawthorne. Two books The Art Spirit and Hawthorn on Painting, created from Ryerson’s notes taken while studying with each of the two masters remain in print today. They are perhaps the most important books ever written on aesthetic philosophy and painting technique in America.
Miss Ryerson was born into a prominent American family. Their ancestral home is now Ringwood Manor State Park and Cultural Center (New Jersey). The “western branch” moved to Chicago in the 19th century and founded Ryerson Steel, Ryerson Bridge and several ancillary companies. The Chicago Ryersons were early collectors of French Impressionism and their donations to the city’s Art Institute form the corpus of the world-renowned collection of French art held by the museum.
Life was not as grand for the New Jersey Ryersons. Margery’s father, a prosperous lawyer, died when she was fourteen. Although she attended Vassar College, graduating in “nineteen ought nine”. Her mother, a talented sculptor (who was among the founding members of the Art Students League, was forced to give up the family home and move to New York City. She and Margery took up residence in the Sherwood Studio Building on 57th Street.
Margery began spending summers in Provincetown studying with Hawthorne. During the winter months she took classes at the League with George Bridgeman and also learned etching and lithography. In 1915 she began her instruction with Robert Henri.
During the same period she took a position teaching children’s classes at a church-run settlement house. After morning classes ended Miss Ryerson stayed on sketching and scratching on etching plates creating images of the tiny, multi ethnic orphans while they slept, played, took music instruction and were nursed by the house staff. Thus began the artist’s life long focus on the subject of children.
Her unique body of work has yet to be revealed. After her centennial exhibition at Grand Central Art Galleries (1986) and following her death her entire estate of paintings and graphic works were purchased by heirs to Robert Henri and by James and Mary Anna Cox. Several shows of Ryerson paintings have occurred in the last eighteen years. Additionally, a major effort is underway to publish a catalogue raisonne of Miss Ryerson’s exquisite graphic work. When this is completed traveling shows of Margery Ryerson’s singular achievement in depicting the children of New York’s underclass during the early twentieth century will be enjoyed by an enlarging public interested in her work. - JC