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Dear Joan of Art,

Years ago, I attended a workshop at the museum and I recall a docent talking about an artist who applied paint so thickly to his work that it didn't dry thoroughly and as a result, cracks appeared in a many of his paintings. I can't recall the artist's name. Can you help?

Dear Visitor,

Most likely, you are referring to the work of Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847–1917), a visionary artist who is represented by several paintings in the museum's collection. Ryder frequently painted over wet layers and many of his paintings have deteriorated over time.

Ryder's techniques are discussed at length in Albert Pinkham Ryder by Elizabeth Broun (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, for the National Museum of American Art, 1990). Here is an excerpt about the artist's working methods:

"For Ryder, laying yet another glaze on a cloud or wave was a way of searching out the essential life concealed behind external appearance. Time, colorless and impalpable, assumed a physical presence through the accumulation of pigments and media.

"In the temporal world the effect of this loading of the canvas was to create stresses within the paint film. The wet-on-wet technique meant that paint layers did not dry before being worked again. Wherever 'lean' paint overlay 'fat' (one richer in oily medium), the upper layer dried more quickly and cracked as it contracted, exposing the still-viscous layer below. Sometimes these traction cracks became so severe that they appear like a network of canals isolating small areas of paint—a condition known as 'alligatoring.'"

If you would like to learn more about this intriguing artist and his work, check out our online Director's Choice Tour.

Sincerely,
Joan of Art

Pictured: Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1847–1917, Pastoral Study, before 1904, oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard, 24 x 29 3/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly.