Artist of the week
Moonlit sails and dark varnish
Albert Pinkham Ryder
Albert Pinkham Ryder, an American painter of moonlight and sea, from about 1880 into the 1900s. His paint has darkened and cracked with time. A dark boat rides a yellow wave under a full moon, another leans under a great black cloud, two figures in red and white ruffs stand by a pale stream in the Forest of Arden, a bridge of low arches sits in a brown dusk, a herdsman stands with his cattle by a river, and a ship lies beached below a dark cliff.
As a puzzle
Dark, cracked and slow to build. The varnish has turned brown and fine cracks run through the paint, so much of each picture is one murky colour. Start from the few light places: the moon and the yellow wave, the pale sky around the black cloud, the stream in Arden, the river and the cattle in Landscape, the green sea in The Smugglers’ Cove. The Bridge is brown from end to end and is the slowest. Keep the count low.
A good size here: 30–100 pieces.
Also filed under Symbolism
Subjects here: LandscapesThe SeaNight
6 pictures, pick one to build
