Beatrice Judd Ryan (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Beatrice Bromfield; c.1880–December 1, 1966) was an Australian-born American gallerist, art dealer, curator, arts philanthropist, and poet. She was best known for her work in prompting modern art, as a founding director of Galerie Beaux Arts in San Francisco, and as an organizer of the 1940 "

Art in Action Art in Action was an exhibit of artists at work displayed for four months in the summer of 1940 at the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) held on Treasure Island. Many famous artists took part in the exhibit, including Dudley C. Carter, ...

" program at the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE). She was nicknamed "Mrs. San Francisco", for her tirelessly support of

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

artists.

Biography

Beatrice Judd Ryan was born c. 1880 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia to parents Mary (née Ware) and Davenport Bromfield. In 1882, when she was a toddler, her family moved to California and settled in

San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...

. Her mother established the first

Christian Science Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally know ...

Church on the peninsula (in the San Francisco Bay Area). Ryan was a graduate of

Castilleja School Castilleja School is an independent school for girls in grades six through twelve, located in Palo Alto, California. Castilleja is the only non-sectarian all-girls middle and high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. The faculty consists of approx ...

, a private preparatory high school in Palo Alto; and a graduate of

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where she majored in English (AB degree, 1902). She did not have formal education in art history or art. In 1906, she married Arthur Judd Ryan, a classmate. Together they had two children and settled in New York City. After her husband's death, the family moved to San Francisco. She was the founding director of Galerie Beaux Arts, a cooperative nonprofit gallery on Maiden Lane in San Francisco, active from 1925 to 1933. Maynard Dixon was also involved with the gallery in providing guidance. Their mission was to show modernist art, this was the first contemporary art gallery in the city. An image of Ryan is painted into the park scene (in the far left, sitting in the artist group) in the Beach Chalet murals (1936), by

Lucien Labaudt Lucien Adolphe Labaudt (May 14, 1880 – December 12, 1943) was a French-born American painter based in San Francisco, California. His best-known work may be ''Powell Street'' (1934), a mural in fresco at Coit Tower that he created for the Public ...

. During the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) in 1939 to 1940, Ryan served as the State Director of Exhibitions, and she organized the "Art in Action" program. In 1945, she worked at the Rotunda Gallery at the City of Paris store in San Francisco. After her death in 1966, she bequeathed money to multiple museums in San Francisco the "Beatrice Judd Ryan Bequest Fund purchase", with the clause that the museum had to regularly buy West Coast modern art for their collections.

Publications

* *

References

External links

Oral history interview with Beatrice Judd Ryan, 1964 February 2
from

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

, Smithsonian Institution {{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Beatrice Judd 1880s births 1966 deaths Australian emigrants to the United States Castilleja School alumni Stanford University alumni American art dealers American women curators American art curators People from Melbourne Women art dealers