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Three nude women bathing by moonlight are startled by a man on horseback riding beside a massive tree in this atmospheric, vertical landscape painting. The branches of the oversized tree sweep up and to our right from a thick trunk at the center of the composition to span the top edge of the canvas. Golden clouds veil the glowing full moon, which is framed between branches in the upper left corner. The river in the lower left quadrant reflects the bright clouds and muted blue sky. The three pale-skinned women there react to the horseman by scrambling away to our left. The rider wears a winged, gold helmet and armor. The work was painted almost entirely with warm white, dark moss green, smoke gray, and touches of teal blue. Cracks are visible across the surface of the canvas, and are especially noticeable at the center of the picture.

Albert Pinkham Ryder

Siegfried and the Rhine Maidens, 1888/1891

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 50.5 x 52 cm (19 7/8 x 20 1/2 in.)

framed: 75.3 x 77.2 x 6.4 cm (29 5/8 x 30 3/8 x 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1946.1.1

Artists / Makers

Albert Pinkham Ryder (artist) American, 1847 - 1917

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Overview

By his own account, Ryder was so enthralled by a five-hour performance of Wagner's Götterdämmerung that he rushed home and began painting this rendition of the opera's narrative, working without sleep or food for forty-eight hours. Galloping down a moonlit path, the legendary Norse hero Siegfried encounters a group of Rhine Maidens who beckon seductively from the phosphorescent river. They warn the hero that the magical ring he won by slaying a dragon was forged from stolen gold and bears a deadly curse. Siegfried defiantly proclaims he would rather die than give up his prize. By the opera's dramatic climax, the nymphs' apocalyptic prophecy is fulfilled: Siegfried is killed; overcome by grief, the heroine Brünnhilde sacrifices herself on her lover's funeral pyre, the other gods and heroes of Valhalla are consumed by the spreading conflagration, and the Ring of the Nibelung, now purified by the flames, is returned to the river from whence it came.

Wagner's orchestration engulfed listeners with an overwhelming torrent of sound, and Ryder's composition offers a visual counterpart to this rhapsodic aesthetic experience. Although Ryder's technical naiveté and his unorthodox methods have caused the surfaces of his once-luminous paintings to crack and darken over time, the expressive power and emotional intensity of his art endures.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II, pages 97-102, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/American%20Paintings%20of%20the%20Nineteenth%20Century%20Part%20II.pdf

Inscription

lower left: A. P. Ryder.

Provenance

Richard Haines Halsted [d. 1925], New York, by 1891.[1] Sir William Cornelius Van Horne [1843-1915], Montreal, Canada, by 1895;[2] his estate; (his estate sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 24 January 1946, no. 18);[3] purchased by NGA.

[1] Halsted was a New York stockbroker and member of the New York Athletic Club's Art Committee who collected Oriental and mostly European art; he also owned Ryder's Jonah (middle 1880s to 1890 or later, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.).

[2] Van Horne was a Canadian railroad magnate, amateur artist, and art collector who also owned Ryder's Constance (middle 1880s to middle 1890s or later, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston); for biographical information on him see Walter Vaughan, The Life and Work of Sir William Van Horne, New York, 1920. For a summary of his relationship with Ryder see Elizabeth Broun, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Exh. cat., National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., 1989: 70, 74.

[3] Siegfried is listed in the sale catalogue, Twenty Important Modern Paintings From the Collection of the Late Sir William Van Horne, K.C.M.G., Montreal (New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries, 24 January 1946), cat. no. 18, 30. These paintings were sold on the instructions of Margaret Van Horne, the wife of Sir William Van Horne's grandson (also named Wiliam). She wrote to James Lane at the National Gallery of Art (letter of 11 December 1947, in NGA curatorial files) the following explanation of the disposition of the Van Horne collection: "When Sir William died in 1915, the Art Collection was left to his widow, his son and his daughter.... The Collection was not divided until February 1945. Until then, the entire Collection was in 'The Estate of the late Sir William Van Horne'.... 'Siegfried and the Rhine Maidens' fell into my share at the time of the division." Margaret Van Horne must have inherited her husband's share, who in turn had inherited it from his father, Sir William's son. When the painting was reproduced or lent after Sir William's death it was usually credited to the collection of his widow, Lady Van Horne.

Associated Names

Halsted, Richard Haines
Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc.
Van Horne, William Cornelius, Sir

Exhibition History

1891: Fifth Annual Loan Exhibition, New York Athletic Club, 1891, possibly no cat.

1895: Eighteenth Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Art Association of Montreal, 1895, no. 70.

1901: Exhibition of Fine Arts, Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York, 1901, no. 436.

1902: Seventy-first Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1902, no. 16.

1902: Twenty-fourth Annual Exhibition of the Society of American Artists, New York, 1902, no. 237.

1904: Society of American Collectors Comparative Exhibition of Native and Foreign Art, American Fine Arts Society Galleries, New York, 1904, no. 145.

1910: Ausstellung Amerikanischer Kunst, Königliche Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1910, two catalogues: no. 163 and unnumbered.

1912: Inaugural Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Art Association of Montreal, 1912, no. 162.

1918: Loan Exhibition of the Works of Albert P. Ryder, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1918, no. 39, repro.

1933: The Sir William Van Horne Collection, Art Association of Montreal, 1933, no. 162.

1946: American Paintings from the 18th Century to the Present Day, Tate Gallery, London, 1946, not in cat. (and withdrawn from exhibition; see curatorial file).

1947: Albert P. Ryder, Centenary Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1947, no. 38, repro.

1957: American Classics of the Nineteenth Century, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1957-1958, no. 81 (travelling exhibition, 5 venues, shown only in Pittsburgh).

1957: Painting in America, the Story of 450 Years, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1957.

1961: Albert Pinkham Ryder, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1961, no. 51, repro.

1971: Wilderness, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 9 October-14 November 1971, no. 156 (organized by the National Endowment for the Arts).

1983: A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C; Grand Palais, Paris, 1983-1984, no. 87, repro.

1990: Albert Pinkham Ryder, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn Museum, 1990-1991, no. 59 (shown only in Washington).

2005: Richard Wagner. Visions d'artistes. D'Auguste Renoir à Anselm Kiefer, Musée Rath, Geneva, 2005-2006, no. 27, repro.

Bibliography

1907: Caffin, Charles Henry. The Story of American Painting. New York, 1907; 2nd edition, 1937: 216, repro.

1917: Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. "Some Paintings by Albert Pinkham Ryder." Art in America 5 (April 1917): 157.

1918: Daingerfield, Elliott. "Albert Pinkham Ryder: Artist and Dreamer." Scribner's Magazine 63 (March 1918): 380. repro.

1920: Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. Albert Pinkham Ryder. New York, 1920: 56, 62, repro.

1923: Cortissoz, Royal. American Artists. New York, 1923: 99-100.

1932: Hartman, Sadakichi. A History of American Art. Boston, 1932: 1:318.

1932: Price, F. Newlin. Ryder: A Study of Appreciation. New York, 1932: no. 160.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 146, repro.

1952: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 178, color repro.

1956: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 13, repro.

1959: Bouton, Margaret. American Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number One in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 30, color repro.

1959: Goodrich, Lloyd. Albert Pinkham Ryder. New York, 1959: 18, 115, color pl. 62; details, pls. 61, 63, 64.

1960: The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 25.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 286, repro.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:488, color repro.

1969: Novak, Barbara. American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism, and the American Experience. 2nd ed. New York, 1979: 217-218: fig. 12-5.(3rd ed. Oxford, 2007: 181-182: fig. 12.3.)

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 94, repro.

1974: Gerdts, William H. The Great American Nude: A History in Art. New York, 1974: 130, fig. 7-5.

1979: Johns, Elizabeth. "Ryder: Some Thoughts of His Subject Matter." Arts Magazine 54 (November 1979): 168-169, fig. 4.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 217, repro.

1980: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: no. 33, color repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 158, detail 180, 182-183.

1983: Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr., Carol Troyen, and Trevor J. Fairbrother. A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1983: 307-308, pl. 87.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 547, no. 824, color repro.

1988: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 118, no. 36, color repro.

1989: Broun, Elizabeth. Albert Pinkham Ryder. Exh. cat. National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., 1989: 288-290, pl. 86.

1989: Homer, William Innes, and Lloyd Goodrich. Albert Pinkham Ryder, Painter of Dreams. New York, 1989: 162, pl. 10.

1990: Kelly, Frankin. "George Bellows' Shore House." Studies in the History of Art 37 (1990): repro. no. 18.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 164, color repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 329, repro.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 244, repro.

1992: Rosenberg, Eric Mark. "Intricate Channels of Resemblance: Albert Pinkham Ryder and the Politics of Colorism." Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1992: 212, 213, 336.

1994: Craven, Wayne. American Art: History and Culture. New York, 1994: 364, color fig. 24.21.

1994: Johnson, Diane C. "Siegfried and the Rhine Maidens: Albert Pinkham Ryder's Response to Richard Wagner's Götterdammerung." American Art 8 (Winter 1994): 22-31.

1998: Torchia, Robert Wilson, with Deborah Chotner and Ellen G. Miles. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 97-102, color repro.

2011: Colbert, Charles. Haunted Visions: Spiritualism and American Art. Philadelphia, 2011: 200-201, fig. 58.