The Tempest

1892, reworked between 1896 and 1918

Albert Pinkham Ryder American, 1847-1917

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

Ryder was a reclusive, self-taught artist, whose painting style is both highly personal and very expressionistic. Here Ryder combines two of his favorite themes—his love for the sea and his fascination with Shakespeare. The painting is not a literal scene from “The Tempest,” but a combination of all the major elements from Act 1, Scene 2, placed into one dramatic storm-filled landscape. Ryder reworked the painting for more than twenty years and at one point the artist took a hot poker to the canvas and dragged it through the thickest part of the sky. The painting remained in the artist’s possession until his death.

Title The Tempest

Artwork Date 1892, reworked between 1896 and 1918

Artist Albert Pinkham Ryder

Life Dates 1847-1917

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 27 3/4 × 35 inches (70.5 × 88.9 cm) Framed: 43 5/8 × 51 × 6 1/8 inches (110.8 × 129.5 × 15.6 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Gift of Dexter M. Ferry, Jr.

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 50.19

Markings

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

ca. 1896-1903, Col. Charles Erskine Scott Wood (Portland, Oregon, USA)

1918, Wood. February, 20-32, 1946, sale, John List Crawford and Other Collections, lot 58, Macbeth Gallery, Parke-Bernet (New York, New York, USA). Dr. Chester. J. Robertson (Pelham Manor, New York, USA)

September 9, 1948, consigned by Robertston to Macbeth Gallery (New York, New York, USA)

1950-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Provenance page

Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Wood, Charles Erskine Scott, to Robert C. Vose, August 9, 1918. Wood papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

Exh. cat., Legion of Honor. San Francisco, 1926, no. 159.

Price, Frederic Newlin. Ryder: A Story of Appreciation. New York, 1932, no. 182.

Albert P. Ryder Centenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of Art. New York, 1947, no. 46.

Albert Pinkham Ryder. Exh. cat., Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1961, no. 52.

A Look at American Landscapes. Exh. cat., Charles MacNider Museum. Mason City, IA, 1966, no. 14 (ill.).

Baltimore, 1976, no. 30.

200 Years of American Painting. Exh. cat., National Museum. Warsaw, 1976 (ill.).

Brown, G.L. “Albert Pinkham Ryder’s Joan of Arc: The Damsel in Distress.” Worchester Art Museum (MA) Journal, 3 (1979-1980): p. 44, no. 9 (ill.).

Homer and Goodrich, 1989, pp. 133-134 and 168-169 (pl. 13).

Broun, 1989, no. 66.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Albert Pinkham Ryder, The Tempest, 1892, reworked between 1896 and 1918, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Dexter M. Ferry, Jr., 50.19.