A Wild Note of Longing

This long-overdue new look at the life and work of Albert Pinkham Ryder explores the artist's deeply visionary paintings and the powerful and enduring paths he forged for generations of American modernists.

Few American artists have captured painters' imaginations with the gripping force of Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847-1917). The brooding spirituality of his works, coupled with formal innovation decades ahead of its time, have long made Ryder a favorite of trailblazers like Jackson Pollock, Marsden Hartley, and Robert Rauschenberg. And yet, the artist's biography and practices remain elusive. A Wild Note of Longing--whose title comes from a Ryder poem--takes up the challenge, bringing a new generation of scholarship to the most comprehensive collection of Ryder masterworks assembled to date. Ryder is considered a seminal artist for both the late nineteenth-century Gilded Age and for the emerging modernism of the early twentieth century. This monumental new book presents multiple voices from leaders in the field on the continuing and ever evolving relevance of Albert Pinkham Ryder in modern art. In addition to a general overview of the artist's career, essays also cover Ryder within the context of his hometown of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Ryder's influence and context within modernism.