Margery Austen Ryerson

Biography Ryerson earned her Bachelor's of Fine Arts in English from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, after attending private schools in Morristown. She went on to study under Charles Hawthorne at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and with Robert Henri at the Art Students League in New York. Her art frequently shows children or people doing common everyday activities, such as reading, knitting, playing with toys and sleeping. A key element of Ryerson's art that sets her apart from similar artists, is that she tends to portray the children in paintings alone, without the presence of a maternal figure. Margery Ryerson chose to depict children independently in pictures, partly from Robert Henri’s teachings that kids could be the subjects of paintings just as much as adults could. However, it is also because of the environment/ location that she painted in at the beginning of her career. At first she was not involved with families who could afford to pay for a portrait. So that’s when she became exposed to the less privileged children. Then later she sought out independent, self-reliant children.

Writing and editing experience Ryerson was also involved in the creation of two well known art instruction books; Robert Henri’s The Art Spirit and Charles Hawthorne’s Hawthorne on Painting. Ryerson’s class notes and commentary contributed a lot to both books. Ryerson actually proposed the idea of creating a book to Robert Henri. They worked together to edit and complete the book. The Art Spirit is a very influential and popular book in the art community. The Art Spirit has been in publication ever since 1923.