A Wild Note of Longing: Albert Pinkham Ryder and a Century of American Art

By Christina Connett Brophy, PhD, Elizabeth Broun, PhD, and William C. Agee

This long-overdue new look at the life and work of beloved painter Albert Pinkham Ryder explores the powerful and enduring directions 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.