Lines and Colors art blog

Henry Ward Ranger

Henry Ward Ranger
Henry Ward Ranger

Henry Ward Ranger was an American painter from western New York State, who was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He lived and worked in Europe for a time — where he was exposed to the French art movement known as the Barbizon School, and became part of the less well known Hague School in the Netherlands — before returning to the U.S.

He is noted in particular for his Barbizon school inspired landscapes. These were frequently rendered with thick applications of paint that produced a remarkably textural surface.

Ranger was a key figure in the American Tonalist movement, and is even credited with coining the term. He was a founder of the artists colony n Old Lyme, Connecticut, which was originally dominated by Tonalism, though it is now better known for its later role as one of the centers of American Impressionism.