In the Stable

Albert Pinkham Ryder, In the Stable, before 1911, oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard, 21 x 32 in. (53.3 x 81.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.97

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Artwork Details

Title: In the Stable
Artist: Albert Pinkham Ryder
Date: before 1911
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 21 x 32 in. (53.3 x 81.3 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of John Gellatly
Mediums: oil
Mediums Description: oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Occupation — farm — farmer
Architecture — farm — stable
Animal — horse
Figure
Object Number: 1929.6.97
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1929.6.97

Artwork Description

Albert Pinkham Ryder painted with a "wet-on-wet" technique, by adding new layers of thick paint and varnish before the previous ones had a chance to dry. This overloaded the work to such an extent that one visitor described his work as a "boggy, soggy, squitchy picture truly," and some paintings are still soft a hundred years later. At one point, In the Stable was covered with a network of cracks known as alligatoring, the worst of which have since been filled by a conservator. The white horse in the image was modeled after Ryder’s horse Charley, which he owned as a child in New Bedford, Massachusetts. (Broun, Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1989)