Artist Ellis Ruley (1882 - 1959)

Pumpkin Harvest

Date1939-1959

MediumOil-based house paint on posterboard

DimensionsSight: 30 1/2 × 36 1/2 in. (77.5 × 92.7 cm)

Object numberN0014.2019

Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of George and Kay Meyer, in honor of Jeffrey Pressman and Nancy Kollisch

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextThe son of an enslaved man who freed himself by escaping North, folk artist Ellis Ruley lived in Norwich, Connecticut, working in construction until 1929 when he was seriously injured in a truck accident. With money from the settlement Ruley purchased a house and started to paint fulltime. By 1950 he began to display and sell his work for small sums at local art association events. Ruley’s imaginative depiction of idyllic landscapes, bucolic nature scenes, and communal farm activities belied the turbulence of his personal life. Because he lived in an all-white neighborhood and had an interracial marriage, Ruley experienced harassment and ill-treatment by his neighbors. His death in 1959 was considered suspicious, and many believed it was motivated by racial resentment.
BibliographyGlenn Robert Smith, "Discovering Ellis Ruley: The Story of an American Outsider Artist," Random House Value Publishing (1993).

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On view