American Monotypes from the Baker/Pisano Collection | Page 60

Margery Ryerson (American, 1886–1989)
Sisters, n.d.

Monotype, 6 x 4 in.
Collection of The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York. Gift of
the Baker/Pisano Collection, 2001.9.217

Born in Morristown, New Jersey, Ryerson was a printmaker,
watercolorist, and painter. Sisters is an unusual line-drawing
monotype, though typical in subject matter for Ryerson. Her
art is indebted to Robert Henri, with whom she studied at the
Art Students League of New York from 1915 to 1918. As a
student, she recorded the teachings of Henri from which she
compiled the well-known book The Art Spirit (1923). Ryerson
also took summer courses with Charles W. Hawthorne at the
Cape Cod School of Art and compiled a book of his teachings
called Hawthorne on Painting (1938). Long lived, she produced
a prodigious number of canvases, largely conforming to the
style of painting in vogue during her student years. Ryerson was
a member of many organizations including the Allied Artists
of America, New York City; the California Printmakers; and
the Provincetown Art Association, Massachusetts.
NOTES:
Heller and Heller, North American Women Artists of the Twentieth
Century, 482.
Wardle, American Women Modernists, 225.

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