Albert Pinkham Ryder, American artist (1847-1917), was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. There he attended a public grammar school for boys and began painting. Vision impairments, the result of a faulty vaccination, kept him from continuing his education beyond this point. His family moved to New York City in 1870. That year, he applied to the National Academy of Design, but was rejected. In 1871, after studying with portrait painter and engraver William Marshall (1837-1906), Ryder was admitted to the National Academy, where he studied until 1875.

In 1875 Ryder participated in an exhibit of works that had been rejected by the National Academy. In 1880, Ryder began working in a new studio space in New York, and began painting in a different manner than he had before. Instead of the pastoral themes he had painted before, he made works based on the themes of classic mythology, the bible, classic literature and Wagner.

Ryder recieved a silver medal at 1901 the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo. In 1906 he was admitted as a full member to the National Academy of Design. Ryder had ten paintings in the Armory Show. In 1915, Ryder's health began to decay. He moved to Long Island, where he died in 1917.

Sources:
1. http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?27450
2. http://www.butlerart.com/pc_book/pages/albert_pinkham_ryder_1847.htm

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