Artist Ellis Ruley (1882 - 1959)

Pumpkin Harvest

Date1939-1959

MediumOil-based house paint on posterboard

DimensionsFramed: 30 1/2 × 36 1/2 × 1 5/16 in. (77.5 × 92.7 × 3.3 cm) Sight: 21 1/2 × 27 5/8 in. (54.6 × 70.2 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 TextRuley’s imaginative depiction of idyllic landscapes, bucolic nature scenes, and communal farm activities belied the turbulence of his personal life. As the son of an enslaved man, Ruley escaped north and painted full-time after receiving an insurance payout from a truck accident. His home was in an all-white neighborhood where he lived with his white wife in an interracial marriage. Ruley’s presence was responded to with harassment from his neighbors and his death in 1959 was considered suspicious as many suspected it was racially motivated.
BibliographyGlenn Robert Smith, "Discovering Ellis Ruley: The Story of an American Outsider Artist," Random House Value Publishing (1993).

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On view