Data Source

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Luce Center Label

In the mid-1890s, Albert Pinkham Ryder was infatuated with a voice he heard in his apartment building. He found the woman who was singing and immediately asked her to marry him. His friends intervened, saying that the woman was unsuitable, but Ryder immortalized the event by painting images of beautiful women bewitching men with their songs. In Passing Song the sailor wants to approach the woman but is unable to turn his rudderless boat as it drifts away with the current. This helpless figure probably symbolizes the artist, who felt passionately about women and fell in love easily, but never married. (Broun, Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1989)

Luce Object Quote

"By a deep flowing riverThere's a maiden pale,And her ruby lips quiverA song on the gale,A wild note of longingEntranced to hear,A wild song of longingFalls sad on the ears."Albert Pinkham Ryder, quoted in Broun, Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1989

Artist

Albert Pinkham Ryder, born New Bedford, MA 1847-died New York City 1917

Date

before 1902

Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly

Medium

oil on wood

Dimensions

8 1/2 x 4 3/8 in. (21.6 x 11.1 cm)

Type

Painting

See more items in

Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection

Department

Painting and Sculpture

Object number

1929.6.103

Topic

Figure female

Waterscape\boat

Landscape\water

Landscape\coast

Performing arts\music\voice

Literature\Ryder\Passing Song