Louis Ritman (1889–1963) was an
American impressionist painter. He is best known for his female nudes, painted in a fashion similar to that of his friends
Frederick Carl Frieseke
Frederick Carl Frieseke (April 7, 1874 – August 24, 1939) was an American Impressionist painter who spent most of his life as an expatriate in France. An influential member of the Giverny art colony, his paintings often concentrated on variou ...
,
Lawton S. Parker
Lawton S. Parker (7 April 1868 – 1954) was an American impressionist Painting, painter.
Biography
Born in Fairfield, Michigan, raised in Kearney, Nebraska, Parker studied at the Art Institute of Chicago beginning in 1886. He traveled to Fran ...
, and
Richard E. Miller, all American artists who studied and lived in France.
Ritman was born in
Kamianets-Podilskyi
Kamianets-Podilskyi ( uk, Ка́м'яне́ць-Поді́льський, russian: Каменец-Подольский, Kamenets-Podolskiy, pl, Kamieniec Podolski, ro, Camenița, yi, קאַמענעץ־פּאָדאָלסק / קאַמעניץ, ...
, Russian Empire, and moved with his family to Chicago around 1900. He took a drawing class at
Hull House
Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of the city, Hull House (named after the original house's first owner Cha ...
, then attended the Art Institute's school, the
Chicago Academy of Fine Arts
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...
, and briefly the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...](_blank)
in Paris at the advice of Parker to continue his studies. Ritman was a member of the second generation of American artists to work in
, where he first painted in 1911 and would continue to summer for the next twenty years. He and his contemporaries preferred the female nude as their subject, painted in dappled sunlight or in chromatic interiors. While his work bears strong similarities to Frieseke's, art historian
William H. Gerdts notes "an appealing wistfulness which is also quite distinct."
[Gerdts, 89] The influence of
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...
may be seen in the more structural, blocky brushstrokes of paintings after the mid- 1910s.
In 1929 Ritman returned to the United States to instruct at the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...
, yet continued to visit France until the end of his life. He died in
Winona, Minnesota
Winona is a city in and the county seat of Winona County, in the state of Minnesota. Located in bluff country on the Mississippi River, its most noticeable physical landmark is Sugar Loaf. The city is named after legendary figure Winona, who ...
.
Notes
References
*William H. Gerdts, Jochen Wierich, et al., ''Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865-1915'', 198. Terra Foundation of the Arts, 1992.
Louis Ritman biography, ''Antiques and Fine Art Magazine''Schwartz Collection biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritman, Louis
20th-century American painters
20th-century American male artists
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
American male painters
American Impressionist painters
Académie Julian alumni
1889 births
1963 deaths