Jonah

About this artwork

Jonah is one of Ryder's most densely painted canvases. He reworked this image so many times that the paint layers are still soft to the touch after more than a century. Ryder chose a Biblical tale of damnation, terror, and salvation that suited his poetic temperament and his manner of working. He was a thoughtful and literate painter who often found himself waiting for inspiration to strike. When the moment came, Ryder gave himself over to the act of painting, stopping only to gather his energy ...

Art Historical Context

Albert Pinkham Ryder's *Jonah* (ca. 1885–1895) captures the dramatic Biblical tale of the prophet swallowed by a whale, a story of damnation, terror, and divine salvation. Rendered in oil on canvas, this Smithsonian American Art Museum treasure depicts Jonah amid turbulent seas, a boat, and the looming whale, evoking the stormy chaos of the ocean's waves. Ryder, a reclusive 19th-century American artist by Romanticism and Symbolism, infused his works with mythic depth and poetic intensity, drawing from literature and scripture to explore human struggle against nature's fury. What sets *Jonah* ...

About the Artist

Albert Pinkham Ryder · 1847–1917

Largely self-taught, Albert Pinkham Ryder is widely considered one of America's greatest visionary painters. His intense use of color and mysterious themes are distinctly Romantic. Ryder moved with his family from New Bedford, Massachusetts to New York in 187, where he studied briefly at the New York National Academy of Design. He studied the engravings of Camille Corot and other Barbizon painters...