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May 11, 2015

The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse)

c. 1896–1908

Albert Pinkham Ryder

(American, 1847–1917)

America, 19th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 84.5 x 102 x 6.5 cm (33 1/4 x 40 3/16 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 70.5 x 90 cm (27 3/4 x 35 7/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1928.8

Location

207 American Realism

Did you know?

Counterclockwise horse racing in the United States was not standardized until the 1920s.

Description

Ryder’s subject was inspired by a horse race that took place in New York during 1888. One of the artist’s friends wagered $500 on the race and then died by suicide after the horse lost. Medieval symbolism infuses the composition: death appears as a skeleton on horseback holding a scythe with which he cuts down the living, while a snake—a sign of temptation and evil—slithers in the foreground. An intense man, Ryder worked on the painting for several years and was deeply reluctant to part with it.

Video

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed lower left: "A. P. Ryder"

Provenance

c. 1896–1906

Albert Pinkham Ryder [1847-1914], New York, NY, sold to Louis Lehmeier

1906–by 1913

Louis Lehmeier, returned to the artist ¹

After 1906–by 1913

Albert Pinkham Ryder, probably sold to Albert T. Sanden

By 1913–1924

Albert T. Sanden, New York, NY ²

1924

(Ferargil Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) ³

1928–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

Provenance Footnotes

¹1It is unclear why Lehmeier, an acquaintance of Ryder, returned the painting to the artist.

²1Sanden, one of Ryder's closest friends, owned 11 paintings by the artist, most of which he purchased directly from the artist. Since Lehmeier returned this painting to Ryder, it is probable that this painting was one of them.

³1Thomas H. Russell of Ferargil Galleries wrote to Margaret Evans of the Butler Institute of American Art that they had just acquired a group of Ryder paintings, including "The Race Track," known as the "Sanden pictures."

Citations

The Art Digest (Feb. 1, 1928):2.

The Art Digest (Feb. 1, 1928): 2.

Zachary Ross, “Linked by Nervousness: Albert Pinkham Ryder and Dr. Albert T. Sanden,” American Art 17.2 (Summer 2003): 86-96.

Sophie G. Lehmaier, letter, June 26, 1947, Goodrich, Lloyd and Edith Havens Papers Relating to Albert Pinkham Ryder, #F32, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library.

W. M. M. “‘The Race Track,’ or ‘Death on a Pale Horse’ by Albert Pinkham Ryder.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 15, no. 3 (March 1928): 65–71. Mentioned: P. 65-71; Reproduced: P. 67 www.jstor.org

Burroughs, Alan. Limners and Likenesses; Three Centuries of American Painting. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1936. Mentioned: P. 155-156

Milliken, William M. “American Painting from 1860 until Today.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 24, no. 6 (June 1937): 96–98. Mentioned: P. 97 www.jstor.org

Kent, Rockwell, ed. World-Famous Paintings. New York: Wise & Co., Inc, 1939. Reproduced: pl. 96

Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 15 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 542 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 188 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 188 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 233 archive.org

Kitaj, R. B., and Timothy Hyman. "A Return to London" IN Kitaj Paintings, Drawings, Pastels. John Ashebury, Joe Shannon, Jane Livingston, 41. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson, 1983. Mentioned: p. 41

Cleveland Museum of Art. Interpretations: Sixty-Five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 37

Gardner, Helen, Richard G. Tansey and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996. Reproduced: p. 1009, fig. 26-87

Dijkstra, Bram. American Expressionism: Art and Social Change, 1920-1950. New York: H.N. Abrams, in association with the Columbus Museum of Art, 2003. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 67-68, fig. 18

Novak, Barbara. Voyages of the Self: Pairs, Parallels, and Patterns in American Art and Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 114-115, fig. 6.4

Novak, Barbara. American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism, and the American Experience. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 176-177, fig. 12.1

Adams, Henry. What's American About American Art?: A Gallery Tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 10, fig. 4, 94-95

Wilson, Kristina. The Modern Eye: Stieglitz, MoMA, and the Art of the Exhibition, 1925-1934. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 123

Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 282-283

Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 53

Kim, Miri. ""Right Matter in the Right Place": The Paintings of Albert Pinkham Ryder." Center 35: Record of Activities and Research Reports (June 2014-May 2015): 112-115. Mentioned: p. 114; reproduced: p. 112

Moore, John L., Esther Jun, Clodagh Keogh, William H. Robinson, Danni Shen, Enid Shomer, and Reto Thüring. Demise: Rina Banerjee, Esperanza Cortés, Jae Rhim Lee, Brian Maguire, Paolo Pelosini, Levent Tuncer. 2018, 4. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 4-7.

Arendsee, M., and M. Steinman-Arendsee. "Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art." CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87. Reproduced & mentioned: p. 80

McCree, J. Woodrow. Washington Irving's Critique of American Culture: Sketching a Vision of World Citizenship. 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 133, fig. 5.1

Cleveland Museum of Art, and David Franklin. The Cleveland Museum of Art. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd, 2012. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 64-65

Exhibition history

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Loan Exhibition of the Works of Albert P. Ryder (11 March - 14 April 1918), cat. no. 48, pl. 48.

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1918–1924).

New York, Anderson Galleries, American Art from the Collections of Members of the Associated Dealers in American Painting (8 - 26 February 1927).

Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by Thomas Eakins, Albert P. Ryder, and J. Alden Weir (1928).

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Sixth Loan Exhibition: Winslow Homer, Albert P. Ryder, Thomas Eakins (May 1930), no. 61, p. 61.

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Taste of Today in Masterpieces of Painting Before 1900 (10 July - 2 October 1932).

Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, The Century of Progress Exhibition (1 June - 1 November 1933), no. 475.

Paris, Musée du Jeu de Paume, Trois Siècles d'Art aux États-Unis (May - July 1938), no. 144.
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Art in Our Time: The Tenth Anniversary Exhibition of The Museum of Modern Art (April - October 1939), cat. no. 26, pl. 26.

New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Two American Romantics of the Nineteenth Century: Robert Loftin Newman 1827-1912, Albert Pinkham Ryder 1847 - 1917 (13 November - 2 December 1939), no. 9.

Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, Night Scenes (15 February - 7 March 1940), no. 56.

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Survey of American Painting (24 October - 15 December 1940), cat. no. 205 (not ill.)

London, The Tate Gallery, American Painting: from the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day (Summer 1946), cat. no. 178.

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Ryder Centenary Exhibition (18 October - 30 November 1947), no. 31, ill. p. 34.

Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Diamond Jubilee Exhibition: Masterpieces of American Painting (4 November 1950 - 11 February 51); no. 62.

New York, National Academy of Design, The American Tradition Exhibition of Paintings (3 December - 16 December1951), no. 120, ill. p. 44.

Buffalo, New York, Albright Art Gallery, Expressionism in American Painting (10 May - 29 June 1952), no. 4, ill. p. 13.

Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Hundert Jahre Amerikanische Malerei 1800-1900, An Exhibition Circulated by the American Federation of Arts (14 March - 3 May 1953); traveled to München, Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen (15 May - 28 June 1953); traveled to Hamburg, Kunstalle (18 July - 30 August 1953), cat. no. 78, p. 34, ill. p. 21.

Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Mostra di Pittura Americana del XIX Secolo (19 January - 7 February 1954), cat. no. 53, pl. 19.

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, American Painting in the Nineteenth Century (1954), cat. no. 53.

Washington, D. C., The Corcoran Gallery, The American Muse (1959), cat. no. 63.

Buffalo, New York, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Heritage and Horizon: American Painting 1776 - 1976 (6 March - 11 April 1976), cat. no. 26; traveled to Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts (5 May - 13 June 1976); traveled to Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art (4 July - 15 August 1976); traveled to Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art (8 September - 10 October 1976).

Kansas City, Missouri, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kaleidoscope of American Painting, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (2 December 1977 - 22 January 1978), no. 37, ill. p. 34.

Washington, D.C., National Museum of American Art, The Art of Albert Pinkham Ryder (6 April - 29 July 1990); traveled to Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum of Art (14 September 1990 - 8 January 1991); exhibition catalog published for the NMAA by the Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, 1989), p.l 98, fig 86, cat. no. 51, p. 275.

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).

Exhibition of American Painting from 1860 Until Today. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-October 4, 1937).

Expressionism and Related Movements. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 26-February 28, 1939).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951).

Art of the United States: 1670-1966. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (organizer) (September 28-November 27, 1966).

Heritage and Horizon: American Painting 1776 - 1976. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (organizer) (March 7-April 11, 1976); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (May 2-June 13, 1976); The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (July 4-August 15, 1976); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 8-October 10, 1976).

Kaleidoscope of American Painting, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (December 1, 1977-January 22, 1978).

Conserving the Past for the Future. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-May 6, 2001).

Cleveland Collects American Art of the Gilded Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 23-May 18, 2003).

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{{cite web|title=The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse)|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1928.8|author=Albert Pinkham Ryder|year=c. 1896–1908|access-date=02 November 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse)

The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse)

Albert Pinkham Ryder

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