Tom Ryan, Western Artist

Thomas Richard “Tom” Ryan was a well known cowboy artist. He was born on January 12, 1922 in Springfield, Illinois to William Martin Ryan and Sarah Ellen Bernds Ryan and was one of eight children. In the 1930 federal census, his father and one of several older brothers worked in Springfield’s coal mine industry. His father’s family had originally come from Ireland and the census listed his grandfather’s place of birth as the “Irish free state.” His mother’s family had been in the United States a bit longer. Their records indicate that Sarah’s father, John Robert Bernds, was born in Germany in 1858 while her mother’s family had been in the United States since at least around the time of the Revolutionary War. The Ryans were a closely knit, working class family. They had possibly not always lived in the eastern United States. There are some indications that they may have briefly lived in Colorado before Tom was born, although the 1900 and 1910 federal census both show William or William and family residing in Illinois. William and Sarah were married in 1902 and of all their children were born in Illinois.

In his book, “Tom Ryan, A Painter in Four Sixes Country,” the author Dean Krakel recounts that Tom’s father owned some horses and that Tom was able to ride there and at the home of other family members when he was a boy. He was also exposed to art early on and discovered his interest in drawing while still in grade school. He was educated in his high school years at a boarding school in Wisconsin, graduating in 1939. He amused himself along the way by creating comic strip and cartoon-like drawings. The National Cowboy Hall of Fame hosted two exhibits called “The Early Art of Tom Ryan” in which they displayed some of this work. Tom also had attended junior college and the St. Louis School of Fine Art.

He attended school until 1942, when he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and was posted in the South Pacific Theater. Tom served in the amphibious fleet from the summer of 1942 to November of 1945. During the war, Tom said in a newspaper interview, he did a lot of pen and pencil drawings for his fellow servicemen to send home to their girlfriends and families. He also spoke of this during a short clip from a 2001 oral history interview. In it, Tom told a little more about the drawings, that they were done on white paper, four or five inches high and that he would charge $5 apiece for his work. He did not estimate how many he had done, but said it was surprising how many sailors wanted them.

Tom had said that his experiences during World War II encouraged him to pursue art as a career. He and the former Jacqueline Ruth Harvey had met right after his discharge and they were married about one year later in Illinois. In the 1950 federal census, they were living in Chicago with their first born son. After getting out of the service, he had attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago and the Art Students League in New York under the benefits of the “GI Bill.” While at the Art Students League, Tom won a competition to design a western themed book jacket. After he left the school, his first engagements were to paint book covers for western novels. As he did this for around eight years, he became more and more immersed in western history. In a newspaper interview, Tom said that he painted and sold his first ranch scene in 1958 after a trip to Texas. By then he had branched out to painting in oils and watercolors before settling on oils as his preferred medium.

Another significant trip occurred in 1963 when Tom was invited to come to the 6666 Ranch in Guthrie. He spent several weeks there taking photographs which he later used in creating one of his most memorable series of paintings over the next several years. He finally was motivated to move to Texas in 1967. After the move, he focused almost exclusively on western art. He was also able to not only paint historical themed subjects, but found that he could capture moments of twentieth century cowboy life as well. The Ryan family’s final move was to Stamford, Texas around 1973.

One of his early paintings called “Sharing an Apple” depicted a cowboy feeding his horse out of his hand. Of this work, Tom had said that he felt like the cowboy treated horses gently. He added that he had awakened one morning with an image in his mind and then painted it just as he had pictured it. The cowboy depicted in the painting was a real person, Leroy “Sheep” Morrow (1930 – 2002) and he was proud of his association with the painting. Sheep died in 2002 in Aspermont, Texas and his long and colorful obituary listed the ranches that he had been associated with including the O BAR O and the two different times that he had worked for the 6666. The obituary mentioned that the Ryan painting had been completed in 1969 and that it currently hung in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

Another painting called “George Humphrey’s Portrait” depicts Humphreys, a long time foreman of the 6666 Ranch, standing in front of the iconic old red barn. George Preston Humphreys (1899 – 1979), had been born in nearby Aspermont. Samuel Burk Burnett had hired him as a youth to work on the ranch. Humphreys served as foreman from 1932 until his retirement in 1970 and was a familiar face around the area. This painting is now part of the permanent collection of the Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock. Other paintings from this series feature the ranch’s chuck wagon, a favorite subject shown in numerous Ryan paintings.

Tom sometimes talked about his methods. Some of his paintings were based on photographs that he had taken with his old 4 x 5 box camera. Some of his photographs have been exhibited by museums from time to time. For others, he said, he sometimes would draw a two or three inch thumbnail sketch and use it as the basis for his work. He could paint in a studio, but also often painted outside and said that the wind, sun and dirt was never troublesome enough to be a distraction.

His paintings are widely held by museums and in private collections. Selected prints may also be found. Over the years, his work has appeared in calendars such as Brown and Bigelow, Cattleman’s Magazine, Life Magazine, Western Horseman, Southwestern Art Scene Magazine and others.

Tom Ryan passed away on December 10, 2011, just short of his 90th birthday. After services at Stamford’s First Baptist Church, he was laid to rest at Willow Cemetery in Haskell.

© 2024, all rights reserved.