Portrait of the Duchess
1920-1934
39 1/4 x 32 in. (99.7 x 81.3 cm)
Rufus J. Dryer
American
(1880 - 1937)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Gift of Miss Leora Dryer
Accession Number:
1937.15
Location: Not currently on view
Rufus K. Dryer was born into a well-to-do Rochester family of politicians and businessmen. Like many aspiring artists of the day, he studied with Robert Henri in New York City. And like many free spirits of means, he soon after moved to France to pursue his career, returning home only three years before his death. Nothing is known of the pensive woman wearing a fashionable cloche and fur whom Dryer painted in tones of blue and peach against a wildly-patterned wallpaper backdrop. This canvas appeared in the artist’s memorial exhibition here at MAG in 1937, shortly after which it was presented to us as a gift from Dryer’s sister, Leora, also an artist.
[Label text from It Came From the Vault exhibition, 2013]